Performance in primary health targets almost doubles

MEDIA RELEASE

August 26, 2014

Performance in primary health targets almost doubles in past year

The Canterbury District Health Board’s performance against its toughest health targets have paid off with an almost 40 percent increase over the past year.

The Canterbury DHB has achieved five of the seven targets – and made significant improvements on two of its primary care targets in quarter four of the National Health Targets.

David Meates, Canterbury DHB chief executive, says efforts across the health system to achieve targets have been remarkable.

“Improvements on the primary care targets for Better Help for Smokers to Quit and the More Heart and Diabetes Checks have been outstanding over the past year going from 36 and 37 percent respectively in quarter one to 75 and 66 percent in quarter four,” Mr Meates says.

“That’s an increase of around 40 percent and translates to around 105 people a day who are receiving support and advice to quit smoking and another 133 people a day who are getting a cardiovascular risk assessment – this is nothing short of impressive.”

Despite the ongoing challenges of running a health system in a post-quake environment, the Canterbury DHB is committed to providing the best possible care through focusing its resources where they will be most effective, Mr Meates says.

“I’m also particularly impressed with our performance in the Improved Access to Elective Surgery target. This past year, we performed 21,441 elective surgery procedures in Canterbury. Canterbury DHB is the largest public health provider of elective surgery in New Zealand, and each year Canterbury DHB provides over 2500 surgeries for other DHBs.
Canterbury continues to achieve the ED health target, with 95 percent of patients admitted, discharged or transferred from ED within six hours despite some challenges around increasing presentations.
“Attendance has shown strong growth among younger adults over recent months. Strategies to care for older people in their own homes and the community are well embedded and have flattened previous growth over the past three years in this age group,” David Meates said.
Find more on the health targets here

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