The Bay of Plenty District Health Board achieved two out of the six quarterly national health targets for April to June 2016.

The health targets released by the Ministry of Health this week show the DHB exceeded the Improved Access to Elective Surgery and More Heart and Diabetes Checks, came close to the Shorter stays in Emergency Departments target, but was well off the mark for the Faster cancer treatment, Increased immunisation, and Better help for smokers to quit targets.

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board achieved two out of the six quarterly national health targets for April to June 2016. File Photo.

The six targets are a set of national performance measures designed to improve the performance of health services that reflect significant public and government priorities.

When compared to the third quarter of this year (January to March), the BOPDHB's results were up for the Elective Surgery, Cancer Treatment, Help for Smokers and Heart and Diabetes Checks targets, but decreased in the Emergency Department and Immunisation targets.

Primary health portfolio manager Andrea Baker says their result for the Increased Immunisation target remains a concern for the BOPDHB.

In the fourth quarter, the DHB's result was 87 per cent, which Andrea describes as 'disappointing”, and has fallen from the 90.6 per cent result achieved in the third quarter. The target is 95 per cent.

The DHB is working with its primary care partners and the community to see what can be done to improve performance, says Andrea.

'Part of that focus will be on the recommendations of a recent DHB Peer Review undertaken to examine how things can be better implemented across the Bay of Plenty.

'We are committed to meeting the immunisation target of 95 per cent and will implement agreed review recommendations once they have been received.”

The BOPDHB also maintained its performance of 94 per cent for the Emergency Departments target, but narrowly missed the 95 per cent target.

ED business leader Neil McKelvie says the DHB is in the midst of a general and sustained increase in volumes attending emergency departments in Tauranga and Whakatāne.

'There were 73,516 ED attendances in the 12 months ending June 2016, whereas in the same 12-month period ending June 2015 there were 69,962. This represents a 5.1 per cent increase year-on-year,” says Neil.

'As well as the general increase there is the seasonal increase of the winter months which we experienced within the last quarter. We are pleased to have maintained that 94 per cent performance in those circumstances.”

Bay of Plenty District Health Board's quarter four (April–June) 2015/16 results. The blue bars represent the latest quarterly results, the orange bars shows performance in the previous quarter, while the yellow triangles show the national goal for each target. Graph: MoH

Surgical Service Business Leader Bronwyn Anstis says for the 12th quarter in a row (three years) the DHB has met and exceeded the Elective Surgery target with a result of 110 per cent (target: 100 per cent).

'Which means more Bay of Plenty residents are getting the surgery they need. This represents a fantastic result for the community we serve,” says Bronwyn.

BOPDHB also met and exceeded the Heart and Diabetes Checks target with 91 per cent (90 per cent), which it came close to achieving the third quarter of this year (Result: 88.9 per cent).

Further improvement was seen in the Help for Smokers target which saw the DHB's result increase from 79 per cent in the third quarter to 84 per cent in the fourth (target: 90 per cent).

And while improvement was made with the Cancer Treatment target, with the DHB's result increasing from 69 per cent in the third quarter to 73 per cent in the fourth, data collection issues meant the performance for the latest quarter was 'understated,” says senior portfolio manager Mike Agnew.

'These have meant that while services were being delivered within target, some of this data was not being captured correctly, thereby understating the DHB's actual performance,” explains Mike.

To view the latest quarterly national health targets results for all district health boards visit the Ministry of Health's website.

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board's third quarter (January to March) and fourth quarter (April–June) for the 2015/16 year, plus current national ranking. Graph: MoH.