Despite growing demand, the Bay of Plenty District Health Board has performed more than its contracted volumes of elective surgery according to quarterly results.

The latest national health target results show that 51 per cent more elective surgeries are now being performed in the Bay of Plenty compared to seven years ago.

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board has performed well in two of its national health targets for the latest quarter.

'We again performed more than our contracted volumes of elective surgery in the April-June quarter,” says BOPDHB Chief Operating Officer Pete Chandler, 'which has enabled us to reduce the amount of time people wait for their operations.”

Each of the nation's 20 District Health Boards is measured against six targets, with the BOPDHB either improving or maintaining its performance in all six. The results cover the April-June quarter and complete the 2014/15 financial year.

In the Improved Access to Elective Surgery target, patients are experiencing shorter waits for operations as the BOPDHB continues to exceed its contracted surgery volumes. It has exceeded these in every quarter over the past two years.

'In the last financial year, 9424 Bay of Plenty patients received elective surgery, compared to 6255 in 2007/08. That's a 51 per cent increase,” says Health Minister Jonathon Coleman

'These improvements are a credit to the hard working health professionals in the Bay of Plenty.”

The BOPDHB has also risen to become the nation's second-best performing DHB for the Better Help for Smokers to Quit target.

'For the third quarter in a row, the primary health aspect of the tobacco target has been achieved,” says BOPDHB health equity/public health portfolio manager Brian Pointon.

'The Better Help for Smokers to Quit target states that 90 per cent of enrolled patients who smoke and are seen by a GP health practitioner should be offered advice to quit.

'The results demonstrate a commitment by all general practices to raise smoking with their patients as a key part of their health and for the benefit of their entire family.”

The public hospitals portion of this target showed its fourth successive quarterly increase in performance and rose to 94 per cent – just one per cent shy of the 95 per cent target.

'The DHB is expecting to achieve the target for the period from July to September 2015,” adds Brian.

'The sustained improvement has come about through system modifications which ensure each smoking patient is given advice and support to quit smoking for their overall health and recovery.”

Performance was maintained in the Shorter Stay in Emergency Departments target (95 per cent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours) at 94 per cent despite ever increasing numbers of people presenting.

'The growth in numbers of people turning up to the Tauranga Hospital ED has been very high in recent years,” says BOPDHB Decision Support Manager Trevor Richardson, 'with just under 50,000 presenting for the 2014-15 financial year.

'This equates to nearly six people every hour of every day and night for the entire year.

'Despite this, the 2014/15 financial year result was an improvement of 1.4 per cent over the prior year, which itself was up 1.75 per cent on the year before that.

'The progress made meant the target was achieved for the combined Tauranga and Whakatane hospitals for the first time in quarter two of the most recent year.”

For the Increased Immunisation (95 per cent of eight-month olds to have immunisations at six weeks, three months and five months) target, the BOPDHB improved its performance by one per cent to 89 per cent.

'A lot of work has been undertaken with a focus on early registration of babies in general practices, so that the six-week immunisation is given on time,” says Brian.

'This then sets the pattern for ensuring the three-month and five-month immunisations are also given on time.”

Similarly, the More Heart and Diabetes Checks (90 per cent of eligible population to have cardiovascular risk assessed) target result improved by one per cent to 89 per cent.

'Performance has been improved through the concerted efforts of the PHOs and their provider networks,” says personal health/chronic conditions senior portfolio manager Mike Agnew.

'Promotions – particularly around men's health – have been a feature with targeted activities at sporting and social events.”

The Faster Cancer Treatment target is a new ‘projected' target which must be met in July 2016.

The target at that point is 85 per cent of patients receiving their first cancer treatment (or other management) within 62 days of referral.

The BOPDHB is tracking well to meet this target with a second successive large quarterly gain, up eight per cent from the previous quarter.

They also received an ‘achieved' status for the April-June period from the Ministry of Health.