Quarter 2 Health Targets reflect effective Canterbury health

February 28, 2013

MEDIA RELEASE

Quarter 2 Health Targets reflect effective Canterbury health system

The Canterbury health system is working effectively to ensure more Cantabrians are accessing the care they need, according to the National Health Targets Quarter 2 result.

Canterbury District Health Board’s (CDHB) Quarter 2 performance shows impressive results in a number of targets but specifically in its achievements for improved access to elective surgery and cancer treatments.

David Meates, CDHB Chief Executive, says Canterbury’s clinical leaders continue to go above and beyond their duties to ensure people are accessing the care they need, despite ongoing challenges facing the Canterbury health system two years after February 22.

“This is despite the continued ongoing impact the Canterbury earthquakes have had on the Canterbury health system over the last two years and will continue to have for at least the next five,” Mr Meates says.

“There is huge disruption across all our facilities but particularly at Christchurch Hospital with all the construction work that’s happening there. This has had a considerable impact on our operating theatres and hospital capacity. There have been a lot of complex acute cases in recent weeks that add to the challenges facing our services but CDHB is committed to ensure people do get their operations and other treatments they need.”

Mr Meates says having efficient, well-functioning primary care and community services linked in with the hospital is key to a sustainable Canterbury health system.

“Strategies to care for people in the community remain highly successful; however, reduced capacity post-quake adds pressures across our services.”

Mr Meates says other encouraging results had been an increased performance against the Hospitalised Smokers Health Target, with 90 percent of hospitalised smokers having received help and advice to quit – up 2 percent on the previous quarter’s results. (The national target is 95 percent).

“Ensuring we meet health targets is a priority for CDHB and staff continue to work hard towards achieving these, all the while grappling with the ongoing challenges resulting from the earthquakes both in their work environments and at home.”

To view CDHB Health Targets go to:

Results:http://www.cdhb.govt.nz/communications/documents/healthtargets/2013/HT_Q2_DHB-col-Canterbury.pdf

FAQ:http://www.cdhb.govt.nz/communications/documents/healthtargets/2013/FAQs%20for%20quarter%20two%202012-13.pdf

In Quarter 2, Canterbury has:
• Achieved an outstanding 108 percent performance of the year-to-date Electives Health Target, delivering 8,806 elective surgical discharges.
• Achieved the Faster Cancer Treatment Health Target, with 100 percent of patients ready for radiation therapy or chemotherapy beginning treatment within four weeks of their specialist assessment.
• Surpassed the Immunisation Health Target, with 91 percent of eight-month-olds fully immunised (the national target is 85 percent). Canterbury also achieved the target for Māori (86 percent) and Pacific (89 percent) children.
• Increased performance against the Hospitalised Smokers Health Target, with 90 percent of hospitalised smokers having received help and advice to quit. (The national target is 95 percent).
• The ED Health Target in Quarter 2 remained static on 94 percent (short just 1 percent of the 95 percent target of people admitted or discharged within six hours).
• The result for the Heart Checks Health Target rose to 28 percent. The late inclusion of our largest Primary Health Organisation in the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) components of the PHO Performance Programme has resulted in lower baseline figures, as CVD Risk Assessment data for over 75 percent of our population has only been recorded for the past two years – compared with five in other DHBs. A solution to improve data collection around this target is underway with continued improvement expected in Quarter 3.
• Performance against the Primary Care Smokers Health Target slipped slightly to 26 percent of smokers expected to attend primary care receiving help and advice to quit. A number of factors continue to affect this target. We are working with PHOs to increase their provision of smoking cessation advice and support and to improve the capture and accuracy of related data.

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