Good progress on health targets in Northland

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says the latest quarterly health target results show Northland DHB is making good overall progress.

“Northland DHB is continuing to improve its performance on the Government’s national health targets,” says Dr Coleman. “These results are a credit to the health professionals in Northland.”

Latest results show that Northland DHB has continued to deliver the highest number of elective surgeries across all 20 DHBs – surpassing the 100 target by 31 per cent, a three per cent increase on the last quarter.

“DHBs across the country are focused on reducing waiting times for elective first specialist assessments and treatment, such as hip replacements.

Northland DHB maintained steady progress on the immunisation target with a four per cent increase on the previous quarter.

Northland also maintained its performance on more heart and diabetes checks and help for smokers to quit.

Results have been reported for the first time on the new faster cancer treatment health target.

“In Northland 67 per cent of patients with a high suspicion of cancer received their first treatment within 62 days of referral,” says Dr Coleman. “This is comparable with other countries when they have first introduced a similar new target. I know we will continue to see steady improvement towards the target of 90 per cent by June 2017.”

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