Canterbury DHB sustains strong performance

Canterbury DHB sustains strong performance in health targets Q1, 2015-2016

The Canterbury Health System continues to perform strongly in the National Health Targets, release today.

Mary Gordon, Acting Canterbury DHB chief executive, says the strong results in emergency wait times and immunisation are particularly pleasing.

“It’s a top effort considering our population and our people are now experiencing the brunt of living in a post-quake environment,” Ms Gordon says.

“While the last five years have been extremely challenging, we are now seeing our community’s health and wellbeing suffer more than ever.”

Ms Gordon says reduced post-quake capacity and ongoing relocation of services because of facilities repairs, demolition and redevelopment is expected to be a significant challenge for another five or more years.

“Integration of our health system will continue to be pivotal to ensure we can provide the high standard of quality care we’ve managed to deliver amid all the disruptions.”

Ms Gordon says the target for emergency department (ED) waiting times that 95 percent of patients admitted, discharged or transferred from ED within six hours was met this quarter.

“It’s really remarkable considering ED attendances continue to be high. Primary care plays a key role in ensuring the flow of patients through our emergency department,” she says.

“Primary care teams also continue to work hard to ensure our region’s children are protected through immunisation, which has meant this quarter we’ve achieved the target that 95 percent of all eligible eight month olds are fully immunised.”

The other four targets also showed strong performance with a further four percent improvement against the ‘more heart and diabetes checks’ target to 86.5 percent of the eligible population having had their cardiovascular risk assessed in the past five years.

Canterbury DHB continues to work closely with the PHOs to actively support the delivery of the primary care health target. The ‘more hearts and diabetes checks’ performance shows the value of the investment in clinical engagement and education on our IT systems, Ms Gordon says.

More information on Canterbury DHB’s Health Target performance can be found here and on our website.

ENDS

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