Health Targets: 2009/10 - 1st Quarter
For the 2009/10 financial year there are six priority targets published every three months nationally and regionally by the Ministry of Health and DHBs. The targets are published via local newspapers and DHB websites.
MidCentral DHB Health Targets
The MidCentral DHB 2009/10 1st Quarter Health Target report is available to download (224KB) in Acrobat format (PDF).
Previous quarterly reports are also available.
Progress on health targets will be reported for 30 September 2009, 31 December 2009, 31 March 2010, and 30 June 2010.
The Six Health Targets
Specific information about each individual health target is available:
The MDHB Health Target report is available to download (224KB) in Acrobat format (PDF).
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Shorter stays in emergency departments - 30 September 2009
Of the 9717 patients presenting to the Palmerston North Hospital Emergency Department (ED) in the three months to the end of September, 7296 (75%) were admitted, transferred or discharged from the department within six hours of their presentation.
MidCentral Health is making steady progress toward achieving the target of 95% of people presenting to the ED being admitted, transferred or discharged within six hours, by the end of June 2010. A number of new initiatives have been put in place to help with this, such as establishing the Medical Assessment and Planning Unit at Palmerston North Hospital, which aims to increase the rate at which patients who need specialist medical care are assessed and a treatment plan initiated earlier.
MidCentral Health also has a Post Emergency Department Assessment Liaison (PEDAL) team that works with ED staff to ensure community-based care and support services for the older patient who attends ED can be organised early, rather than having to be admitted to hospital. MidCentral Health also has established a taskforce group of staff focused on putting systems and processes in place to improve treatment times.
October has seen an improvement of almost 77% (2377) of 3105 people presenting to ED being admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours of presentation.
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Improved access to elective surgery - 30 September 2009
MidCentral DHB has a target of 5451 hospital discharges for elective surgery by the end of June 2010. In the three months to the end of September, 1296 MidCentral residents had an elective surgical procedure performed – 31 more than planned for this period.
Around 85% of the total operations performed over the quarter were completed at Palmerston North Hospital. Most of the remaining operations were at Capital and Coast, and Hutt Valley DHBs where specialised cardiothoracic, neurosurgery and plastic surgery is performed.
Palmerston North Hospital was able to perform the highest number of major joint (hips and knees) operations in September compared to previous months.
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Shorter waits for cancer treatment radiotherapy - 30 September 2009
The reported result is for September only. Almost all MidCentral residents (97%) needing radiotherapy received their treatment within six weeks of their specialist assessment.
One patient was unable to have their treatment due to capacity constraints caused by linear accerator (radiation therapy machine) outages.
A new linear accelerator purchased and installed at the beginning of 2009 is making a difference in being able to treat more patients more quickly.
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Increased immunisation for two year olds - 30 September 2009
For the three months ending September 2009, 478 of 629 (76%) eligible two-year-old children had been fully immunised in the MidCentral DHB district.
Over the three months to the end of October the rate has increased already to 79% reflecting a more targeted approach by the DHB to increase the immunisation coverage rates by working directly with GP practices and community clinics throughout the district.
MidCentral DHB is concentrating on the 1200 children who are overdue for 3000 immunisation events.
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Better help for smokers to quit - 30 September 2009
The reported result is for September only, when 35 of the 249 (14%) patients who were admitted to hospital and identified as current smokers were offered advice and help to quit smoking.
As a new measure implemented from July 2009, a number of new systems and processes have been put in place throughout Palmerston North Hospital to ensure all information required to report and monitor is captured.
MidCentral Health’s Public Health Service’s Quit Smoking team has already noticed a large increase in the number of referrals received to help people quit smoking.
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Better diabetes and cardiovascular services - 30 September 2009
It is important to note the result reported for this measure is for the April to June 2009 period. This allows time for General Practices to send data to their Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) and the DHB.
MidCentral DHB is making progressing in increasing the number of people with diabetes getting free annual checks and making sure those at risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) have the necessary tests to assess and manage their condition(s).
During the quarter ending June 2009, 920 more than the 3329 people in the district estimated to have diabetes accessed their free annual check, and three-quarters of the total 4249 people had their diabetes well in control.
General Practices are also making strong progress ensuring people have their risk assessments for cardiovascular disease completed – over 80% of the eligible population have had laboratory tests for absolute CVD risk in the past five years.
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Last Updated 20/05/2010