Tuesday 26 May, 2015

Bay of Plenty patients experience shorter waits for operations

B

ay patients are experiencing shorter waits for operations as the Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) continues to exceed its contracted elective surgery volumes.

In the first three quarters of the 2014/15 financial year the BOPDHB performed 7,123 operations; 738 (or 12%) more operations than it was contracted for during that time.

“We again performed more than our contracted volumes of elective surgery in the January-March quarter which has enabled us to reduce the amount of time people wait for their operations,” said BOPDHB Chief Operating Officer Pete Chandler.

The BOPDHB has exceeded its contracted surgery volumes in all three quarters this year and did so in all four quarters of the last financial year, 2013/14.

The news comes as the Ministry of Health released its national health target results for the nation’s 20 DHBs for the January-March 2015 reporting period. Each DHB is measured against six targets.

The BOPDHB maintained its position as the fourth best performing DHB in the country for the Better Help for Smokers to Quit target.

“For the third quarter in a row, all three Primary Health Organisations have achieved the primary health tobacco target,” said BOPDHB Health Equity/Public Health Portfolio Manager Brian Pointon. “The Better Help for Smokers to Quit target states that 90% of enrolled patients who smoke and are seen by a GP health practitioner should be offered advice to quit.

“The BOPDHB district overall achieved 95.3% in this quarter, which ranks it fourth out of the 20 DHBs. Almost a third of those smoking patients then accepted an initial offer of support to quit.”

The Shorter Stay in Emergency Departments target (95% of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours) fell by one per cent to 94% as a result of increased presentation numbers. Nearly 300 more patients were seen in ED than in the previous quarter (a 2.1% increase). Compared to the same quarter in 2014 patient numbers had risen by nearly 10% (1,275 additional patients).

The Faster Cancer Treatment target is a new ‘projected’ target which must be met in July 2016. The target at that point is 85% of patients receiving their first cancer treatment (or other management) within 62 days of referral. The BOPDHB is tracking well to meet this target, up 9% from the previous quarter, and received an ‘achieved’ status for the January-March period from the Ministry of Health.

In both the More Heart and Diabetes Checks (90% of eligible population to have cardiovascular risk assessed) and Increased Immunisation (95% of eight-month olds to have immunisations at six weeks, three months and five months) targets the BOPDHB maintained its 88% performance from the previous quarter.

BOPDHB Primary Health Portfolio Manager Phil Back said much collaborative work had been undertaken between the DHB and its primary care partners to drive up the collective immunisation performance.

“These include closer collaboration between primary care providers and key hospital departments, the production and promotion of immunisation videos, and an Immunisation Maori Health Excellence seminar which highlighted the work of many top performers in this field. This was a very successful event and many learnings were taken from it,” he said.

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