SDHB to improve on targets

The Southern District Health Board’s failure to meet Government health targets for faster cancer treatment has been noted by Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.

The latest quarterly report revealing how 20 DHBs perform alongside specific health targets was released this week.

Coleman said the overall results showed the Southern DHB was making good progress.

However, further work was needed on the faster cancer treatment target, and the better help for smokers to quit target, the minister said.

The Government’s nationwide target is for 85 per cent of patients to receive their first cancer treatment or other management within 62 days of being referred with a high suspicion of cancer and a need to be seen within two weeks.

Southern DHB achieved 79 per cent – 11th highest of the 20 DHBs in the country.

The long wait for cancer surgery in the south hit the headlines last month, with media revealing 10 prostate cancer patients at Dunedin Hospital had to wait seven months for urgent surgery that was meant to be done within a month.

Southern DHB chief executive Chris Fleming said the board apologised to those patients affected by delays in its urology service and said it was committed to making improvements.

The Southern DHB lags at 19th of 20 DHBs in the elective surgery target, which aims to increase the volume of elective surgery by an average of 4000 discharges a year.

Southern DHB commissioner Kathy Grant said: ‘‘In elective surgical target we achieved 99 per cent, with the expectation that we need to achieve 100 per cent.’’

She said industrial action during the year and facility constraints kept it below 100 per cent and she was well aware of the need to improve access to elective surgery.

‘‘A significant production planning exercise will support productivity initiatives; we are also in discussions around how we may be able to make greater use of private capacity as we develop plans for our new hospital in Dunedin.’’

The Southern DHB was 17th of the 20 DHBs in aiming for patients to be seen in hospital emergency departments within six hours.

The target was for 95 per cent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an emergency department within six hours, with the Southern DHB achieving 90 per cent.

Grant said health targets were only one measure of the level of care the DHB provided to its patients.

Since the commissioner’s arrival, the Southern DHB had improved on faster cancer treatment, from 66 to 79 per cent, and it had improved the help to quit smoking target from 74 to 85 per cent. ‘‘And we have maintained immunisation [rates] at 94 per cent.’’

The emergency department sixhour wait time target had deteriorated from 94 to 90 per cent, but at the same time volumes had increased from 80,222 patients to 81,072.