The Southern District Health Board has improved its performance when admitting, discharging or transferring patients from emergency departments within six hours but is still below the national target.

The latest health targets, released by the Ministry of Health this week, show 90 per cent of patients presenting at the health board's emergency departments are admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours, increasing from 86 per cent last quarter.

The national target is 95 per cent.

The results rate health boards according to six targets - emergency department visits, improved access to elective surgery, shorter waits for cancer treatment, increased immunisation, better help for smokers to quit and more heart and diabetes checks.

The southern health board either improved or stayed the same in each of the targets.

The results also show 100 per cent of Southern district cancer patients who were ready for treatment received their radiotherapy and chemotherapy within four weeks of the decision to treat, while the health board, at 93 per cent, was one of 15 exceeding the national target of 85 per cent when it came to immunising eight-month-olds on time.

Southern District Health Board deputy chairman Paul Menzies said the figures showed the health board had improved in some areas which was pleasing but there was still work to be done in others.

The areas the health board could improve were providing better help for smokers to quit and increasing heart and diabetes checks, he said.

Mr Menzies said a lot of work was going into cardiovascular health checks and he expected an improvement in the numbers next quarter.

HEALTH BOARD RATING

How the Southern board performed:

Shorter stays in emergency departments – 90 per cent of southern patients admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours. National target – 95 per cent.

Shorter waits for cancer treatment – 100 per cent of cancer patients who were ready for treatment received their radiotherapy and chemotherapy within four weeks of the decision to treat. National target – 100 per cent.

Increased immunisation – 93 per cent of eight-month-old's had their primary course of immunisation at six weeks, three weeks and five months on time. National target – 85 per cent.

Better help for smokers to quit – 92 per cent of hospitalised patients offered support to quit smoking. National target – 95 per cent.

More heart and diabetes checks – 55 per cent of the eligible population had their cardiovascular risk assessed in the last five years. Note, this is to be completed in stages by July 2014, with a current national target of 75 per cent. 

- © Fairfax NZ News

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