Time to care accolades

Tauranga hospital ward 3A received congratulations from health minister Tony Ryall

On Friday.

Health Minister Tony Ryall

Ward 3 A is the first ward in New Zealand to have completed the full programme funded by the Ministry of Health.

'The National government has invested heavily in Releasing Time to Care – The Productive Ward because it shows you can get even better service with the same resources,” says Tony.

'I'm told the amount of time staff used to spend collecting or looking for misplaced equipment has reduced from over an hour per shift to less than 25 minutes.

'Face to face time with patients has increased by around an hour and a half a day – from 39 per cent to 57 per cent of the shift.

'You made that improvement in the first three months of the programme and you've kept that up.”

The programme has increased the time Health Care Assistants spend with older patients from 48 per cent to 81 per cent.

'There was an initial rise in reporting medication events, which is a good thing because it means you're noticing more and looking harder,” says Tony.

Medication errors have decreased by 85 per cent and that is also being sustained.

Staff turnover has reduced from 3 to 4 staff leaving per month to one or none, a savings to the DHB of about $572,000.

The Productive Ward programme is now in operation in 76 wards across eleven DHBs enabling over four thousand nurses, health professionals and other staff to spend more time caring for their patients.

'I am delighted that here in the Bay of Plenty you've not only spread this programme to every ward in the DHB, but even better, you've maintained the gains you've made.,” says Tony.

'You have been the forerunner of nurses around the country changing the way their wards work so that they can improve the quality of care their patients receive.”

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4 comments

More savings to be had on Health travel budget

Posted on 29-05-2011 10:59 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

Observing the number of Health related staff on flights leaving Tauranga most days, makes me think there's plenty of fat for Tony to trim yet. Also the expensive overseas junkets some seem to indulge in. Airfares back and forth to Europe can't be cheap, let alone to 5 star hotels. C'mon Tony this is your chance to smash the cronyism and waste I believe has been endemic in Health for many years.


Bah Humbug to Gillickers

Posted on 29-05-2011 17:23 | By carpedeum

Hey- you arent usually around till its Christmas and everyone is enjoying themselves- dont be so mean spirited!!! As a retired person who does bit of voluntary work in the ED at Tauranga Hospital I absolutely commend the efforts of Minister Ryall and the terrific Staff who serve the BOP Community- WELL DONE.


Seem to have hit a raw nerve

Posted on 30-05-2011 09:29 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

I guess my comments have hot a raw nerve with carpedeum for some reason. Rather than criticising the Honourable Tony I was simply suggesting that he needs to go a bit further. After all he did criticise Labour (and rightly so) when he was in opposition. Perhaps carpedeum can tell me what value he/she places on flying the bureaucrats around the country when modern technology allows video-conferencing and other more environmentally friendly means of ideas sharing? Maybe carpedeum can tell us what the value is of flying Health bureaucrats to meetings in European cities is? If the answer is good, we may well agree. One thing we do agree on is that the frontline nursing and medical staff at ED or other wards are fantastic.


Lets value whats being done for us

Posted on 30-05-2011 16:31 | By carpedeum

No raw nerves at all Gillickers - Im just "over" NZers not actually appreciating what is being done for them in the Health( and other) Services. My retirement is from being a Health professional(both Public and Private)and I can say that Videoconferencing is OK, but there is nothing like hands on experiencing/learning/training when it comes to real people- also the networking is invaluable.


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