The Southern District Health Board has been praised by the National Health Board for its "tremendous achievement" in exceeding the national target last year for preschool vaccinations.
This month's DHB meeting was told the board should be able to meet the new target for this year, which is 5% higher than the old one.
It will require 95% of all 2-year-olds to be fully vaccinated according to the immunisation schedule.
Acting chief nursing and midwifery officer Tina Gilbertson said the board was already on 94% so it seemed "quite achievable".
Her assurances followed comments by board member Dr Branko Sijnja, who suggested getting from 90% to 95% could be "really hard work" and he asked about the cost.
It would mean catching up with a lot of elusive people and there was "quite a bit of work in that". The board had done well getting to where it had.
The "anti-immunisation lobby" would probably fall within that last 5%, he said. However, it was important to get to the 95% coverage rate because that would provide herd protection.
"It's not just a number which has been dreamed up."
The National Health Board annual performance overview also highlighted the fact Southern had one of the lowest standardised mortality rates in the country.
This rate measures how many people die within 30 days of being admitted to hospital, either as an in-patient or someone receiving day surgery.
While the board was criticised for its free annual diabetes checks being 10% below target for the year, its diabetes management was 8% above target and significantly higher than the previous year. The board was congratulated on this result as it was one of the few in the country to meet this requirement.
Among the areas of concern to the national board were access to acute surgery, acute readmissions to hospital after treatment and the length of stays in the emergency department, particularly at Dunedin Hospital.
The figures for the last three months to the end of October show there has been improvement from the about 70% of patients who were staying no more than the recommended six hours in the already stretched department. The figures were 76.5% for August, 81.5% for September and 83% last month. The target requires 95% of patients have stays no longer than six hours.
At the meeting, board chairman Joe Butterfield said there were some pleasing results and comments in the report considering the "thrashing" the board had been given in some areas in recent months.
