12 June 2002
The Ministry of Health's Hospital Throughput 1999/00 report shows an increase of 5.7 per cent in publicly funded
inpatient hospital services in the 1999/00 financial year compared to the previous 12 months, as measured by hospital
discharges.
Between July 1 1999 and June 30 2000 there were 601,913 people discharged after publicly funded hospital treatment. Of
these, 68.5 per cent, or 394,921, were non-surgical discharges, a rise of 5.8 per cent from the previous year. The other
31.5 per cent, or 189,374, were surgical discharges, representing a 5.4 per cent increase on the previous 12 month
period.
Deputy-Director General Gordon Davies said the report contains information on publicly funded inpatient hospital
treatment provided by all hospitals in the financial year. It includes the amount of publicly funded surgery undertaken
by private hospitals.
The report provides hospital discharges by age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic deprivation, admission and discharge
types. It includes data on the average length of stay, percentage of day cases to total cases and maps showing regions
with rates significantly different from the national average. It also contains data for the previous year.
"The annual throughput reports provide information for all New Zealand. They also break the information down into
district health board areas (DHBs), making them an excellent resource for the boards. The report provides a tool for
DHBs to assess the personal health needs of their resident populations, and complements the personal health toolkits and
health needs assessment information previously supplied to DHBs by the Ministry of Health," Mr Davies said.
ENDS