7 May 2004
Co-ordinated approach to Diabetes resource management through DHB’s
Without a co-ordinated strategy at the District Health Board level, costs in relation to diabetes could more than
quadruple to $1 billion per year in New Zealand over the next 15-20 years.
Speaking at the Diabetes New Zealand Conference in Auckland today Suzanne Snively, a Partner with
PricewaterhouseCoopers, said “the issue for the New Zealand healthcare system is that with the predicted increase in
incidence and prevalence of diabetes, future financial costs related to the complications of the disease are set to
outstrip the funding that the taxpayer can afford. Unless there is other funding made available, the acute needs of
those with diabetes complications will crowd out the services for other health needs.”
Diabetes New Zealand, in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers, are developing a voluntary scorecard to assist
District Health Boards to gauge their progress over time in providing diabetes-related services and to indicate how
effective those services are in reducing the impact of the disease. With this simple tool, District Health Boards will
be able to compare their progress against that of the average of their peers, observe best practice, learn from their
own experience and others ways to improve their services.
With access to resources for prevention, diagnosis and monitoring, many of the costs currently attributable to Type 2
diabetes can be reduced and could save considerable sums annually.
“The aim of the scorecard is to assist at both a national and DHB level in determining how New Zealand is doing in the
campaign against diabetes,” says Ms Snively. “An estimated 116,000 New Zealanders have been diagnosed with diabetes but
many more cases are going undetected. Late diagnosis, poor glycaemic control and inattention to related risk factors
result in development of devastating complications. These will be increasingly evident in an aging population through
preventable poor circulation, foot and eyesight problems.”
A scorecard is a tool developed for measuring organisational performance, requiring measurement and analysis of several
indicators to recognise all the components that go into the achievement of successful outcomes. In a business
environment it provides a balance between non-financial and financial measures. For the purposes of the Diabetes
scorecard it must provide a balance between clinical and non-clinical measures.
The Diabetes scorecard analyses key performances from four dimensions. These are Consumer/Health Service, Population,
Financial, learning/Innovation and Internal processes, with indicators for assessment being developed for each of these
dimensions.
Diabetes New Zealand and PricewaterhouseCoopers intend to finalise the indicators and which DHB’s will pilot the
Scorecard by March 2005.
ENDS