Outstanding success again in immunisation health target

26 May 2008

Outstanding success again in immunisation health target

With only one quarter remaining, following the release of today’s (26 May) Government Quarter Three Health Targets, the focus of the district health board will be on reaching its ED target and working on improving diabetes and cardiovascular services.

Chief executive Kevin Snee said today’s health targets, once again, revealed an outstanding result in Increased Immunisation with the DHB continuing to lead the country at 95 percent against a target of 90 percent, and was on target to reach the 90 percent smoking health target in the final quarter having made it to 83 percent in this quarter.

“The focus will be on getting the hospital across the line in the ED target. While we have made an improvement against last quarter and achieved 93 percent against 91 percent last quarter, effort needs to be made to reach the target of 95 percent and make it sustainable.

“Staff throughout the hospital have made a concerted effort on the ED target and we have made a number of initiatives such as freeing up and better managing patient flow through the hospital – reaching the last two percent and maintaining it will be the challenge. “

Encouraging diabetics to attend their free annual diabetes health check, better managing their condition and increasing the number of people who had their cardiovascular risk assessed will also be the focus of the DHB in the next quarter, Dr Snee said.

“Although the DHB has improved against this target, and was now at 76 percent as opposed to 74 percent last quarter, there was work to be done to improve the outcomes for people who had chronic health conditions and to help them manage their condition more effectively.”

Today’s health targets also showed the DHB failed to meet its Elective Surgery plan for the quarter.

Dr Snee said results presented to the district health board meeting yesterday (May 25) showed the DHB had caught up and was now ahead of plan, which would be reflected in the final quarter results.

“Staff have worked hard to achieve today’s results – it’s been a team effort across the sector and results we are seeing in immunisation are a reflection of how well the sector can work together to achieve better health outcomes for our community.

“The lessons learnt from the immunisation teams and how their work together produced the results needs to be replicated more widely across the sector,” Dr Snee said.
ends

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