Lakes District Health Board recorded a mixed bag of results following today's release of the quarterly national health targets results for April to June 2016.

The district heath board achieved only one of the six targets which are designed to improve the performance of health services that reflect significant public and government priorities.

The Lakes District Health Board achieved one of the six national health targets for the April to June 2016 quarter. Photo: LDHB.

When compared to the January to March 2016 quarterly results, Lakes DHB improved in four of the six targets (‘elective surgery', ‘smoking cessation', ‘heart and diabetes checks' and ‘cancer treatments'), recorded no change in ‘ED stays' but decreased in ‘immunisations'.

The lone target achieved by the Lakes DHB was in ‘Improved access to elective surgery' with 102 per cent which ranked the 18 out of the country's 20 health boards. The target is 100 per cent.

It came close to achieving targets for ‘Better help for smokers to quit (89 per cent/90 per cent – rank: 7) and ‘More heart and diabetes checks' (89 per cent/90 per cent – rank: 16).

The board was also in the vicinity for the Increased Immunisation' (91per cent/95per cent – rank: 14) and ‘Shorter stays in Emergency Departments' (89 per cent/95 per cent – rank: 20) targets.

But it was well off the mark for the ‘Faster cancer treatment' with 56 per cent, which ranked them 20th in the country. The target is 85 per cent.

Medicine Services manager Jane Chittenden says a huge amount of work has been done in the last few months to lift the ‘Faster cancer treatment' target result from 47 per cent in the third quarter to 56 per cent in the latest quarter.

'This has included the setting up of a working party to identify ways to improve, an increased focus on the front end of the cancer pathway from referral, the development of a breach reports to assist in tracking patients and refresher training for the cancer nurse team,” says Jane.

Lifting the achievement by nine points over the quarter may not seem huge but it represents an enormous commitment, she says.

'More importantly, the framework is now clearly laid out, and with better engagement and support from senior management, clinicians and administrative staff, Lakes is expecting a dramatic lift in its achievement in this target in the next quarter.”

Clinical Services acting general manager Nick Saville-Wood says the ED target result continues to be disappointing.

He explains health experts have been working with Lakes DHB in order to introduce changes across the system, and while much has been done, the achievement against the target has not been as quick as they had hoped for.

'It will take some time to see significant improvement as the changes required are across the whole hospital, and not just the emergency department,” says Nick.

Usually a consistent achiever in the ‘Increased immunisation' target, Lakes DHB fell from 96 per cent in the third quarter to 91 per cent in the fourth – four points short of the target for eight month-olds to have their primary course of immunisation at six weeks, three months and five months, on time.

Maternal and child health portfolio Pip King says the drop is due to a mixture of families declining to have their children immunised and immunisations being late.

'The DHB is looking at systems and processes to see how it can be made easier for families to have their babies immunised opportunistically, when they happen to turn up at a health service perhaps for another reason.”

To view the Latest quarterly national health targets results visit the Ministry of Health's website.