Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) published figures this week showing improvements across the board in the past quarter, even if some of the targets are a long way off being met.
In shorter waits for elective treatment, the Southern district remains near the bottom of all health districts, although the processing times show a small uplift of 4% to 58.5% of patients waiting fewer than four months for elective surgery treatment.
The national result was 64.5% — some way off HNZ’s 2030 target of 95%.
The Southern district continues to lead in immunisation: 89% of children in the district under the age of 2 have received their full influenza vaccines.
And while faster cancer treatment appears to be close to the target in the Southern district — 81.5% of patients have received treatment within 31 days — it continues to struggle with shorter waits for first specialist assessments (56.3% within four months) and the emergency departments remain stuck (77% processed within six hours, a slight improvement on the previous quarter).
The health targets do not cover issues such as staffing.
New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation president Anne Daniels, who is also an ED nurse in Dunedin, said while any improvement was good, the changes were not big enough to really affect the many people who missed out on the care they deserved.
‘‘I don’t believe that the so-called improvements are substantial enough to celebrate because we still continue to hear the many, many stories of patients who are waiting and dying on waiting lists, waiting in corridors and waiting in wait rooms and suffering avoidable harm because of the decisions that ... Health New Zealand and this government have made.’’
She said time would tell whether the announcement of a new surgical assessment unit for Dunedin Hospital would help cut down waiting hours in the ED.
Ms Daniels said across the board the challenges were not going away.
‘‘Recruitment is still at less than a snail’s pace for many units, not just EDs, around the country.
‘‘If only they would provide pay equity and safe work conditions, such as having enough nurses to provide safe and timely care.
‘‘So if the movement had been substantial, yes, I’d be the first to say, oh, thank God. But I’m afraid I can’t do that right now because we’ve had nearly two and a half years of this government saying that they’re going to improve things.’’
Health Minister Simeon Brown said the most recent results for October to December showed more people were able to access care sooner.
‘‘These improvements were delivered despite significant challenges facing the health system, including disruption to planned care and appointments, a measles outbreak and high demand in emergency departments.’’
