Bay Of Plenty DHB Year In Review

Bay Of Plenty DHB Year In Review

Matariki signals growth - it is a time of change, it is a time to prepare and a time of action.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board CEO Phil Cammish said Matariki also coincides with the start of the new financial year for government organisations, and is an opportune time to look back on the successes of the year just gone.

“During 2009/10 the Bay of Plenty District Health Board increased service levels and implemented a number of improvements in the way we delivered those healthcare services to our people.

“The Emergency Department is often the first point of entry for patients into our hospitals, and the number of people seeking emergency care continues to increase with 42,228 attendances at Tauranga, 20,720 at Whakatane, and 1,364 at Opotiki.

“We were surprised to see that in 2009/10 the number of acute admissions to Tauranga Hospital increased by 1300, a five percent increase on the previous year.

“The other main points of entry into our hospitals are through the Outpatients Department where the specialists assess people referred by their GP and follow up on care that has been provided. Last year the DHB had increases of 2941 first visits and 2329 follow-up visits.

“In the past year we also improved the way patients were notified of their clinical procedure or surgery dates and in particular the amount of notice we were able to give. This resulted in less people missing their appointments and 300 more people receiving their procedure or surgery.

“A lot of procedures that used to require general anaesthetic and a trip to theatre are now completed as day surgery and we performed 255 more day surgery procedures than in the previous year.

“We also delivered: A marked reduction in acute orthopaedic waiting times for inpatients. An improved working environment in Tauranga’s ED. Additional elective surgery at Whakatane Hospital for Western Bay of Plenty patients. 2807 babies, an increase of 30 births for Whakatane and 62 for Tauranga. A new immunisation service model, to increase the numbers of children being immunised. A study in Rheumatic fever which highlighted the extent of the problem and identified a number of new services which have been introduced to combat the disease.

“Every day the DHB spends $1.6 million on services for people in the Bay of Plenty and this buys for example:

130 hospital admissions

252 outpatient doctor visits

41 operations in our theatres

224 district nurse visits

400 patients overnight in hospital

8033 lab tests ordered per day

757 household management hours for over 65’s

991 personal care hours for over 65’s

8 babies delivered

7 infants are screened for neo-natal hearing loss

8 people call Quitline for smoking cessation support

62 primary school children receive oral health services,

as well as subsidising your GP visits, laboratory tests, medicine prescriptions, funding Kaupapa Health Services and services provided by non-government organisations (NGOs).

“Last year was another good one for the DHB and while this new financial year will provide its own challenges, we will continue to provide increased access to the best healthcare we can for the people of the Bay of Plenty,” Mr Cammish said.

ENDS

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