The Southern District Health Board is one of 14 boards which did not meet the national target for shorter stays in its emergency departments in the first quarter of this financial year.
While it is still 10% short of the target, it has improved by 8% on its position last year.
The just published quarterly results show that while in the final quarter of last year nine boards met the requirement to have 95% of patients admitted, discharged or transferred from ED within six hours, that number dropped to six this quarter.
The Southern board was 17th out of the 20 boards for progress towards the target in the latest quarter, up from second-to-last in the previous quarter.
The percentage is a combination of the results from Dunedin and Southland hospitals. While figures from the individual hospitals were not available yesterday, Dunedin has traditionally been a poorer performer in this area than Southland.
In a statement, board chief executive Lexie O'Shea said she expected to see the results continue to improve throughout the year as the board had several hospital-wide initiatives at both hospitals related to the target.
The only other South Island board not to meet this target this time was South Canterbury, although it was close on 93%.
Southern was one of four boards which did not have the required progress towards meeting increased elective surgery targets, something Mrs O'Shea described as a "blip".
The board scored 97% rather than 100%, mainly due to some specialties being short-staffed, she said.
A recovery plan was in place including seeking extra sessions from visiting specialists and the use of locum staff.
New orthopaedic and general surgeons were also expected soon.
Nurse-led follow-up clinics had begun, which would also ease the load on other clinicians.
The board was ranked first equal with the Hawkes Bay board for the number of 2-year-olds fully vaccinated, just 1% short of the new immunisation target of 95%.
The board is ranked 15th on the target requiring it to provide advice and help on quitting smoking to 95% of hospital patients. A year ago, it was higher than this, but it was only reaching 64% of patients compared with the latest 85%.
All boards met the requirement for cancer patients to receive radiation treatment within four weeks and Southern was fourth on the target checking progress on improved delivery of diabetes and cardiovascular services. A year ago it was ranked 15th.
