A sudden drop in people seeing specialists and receiving elective surgery in the recommended time frame has the Southern District Health Board searching for causes and a solution.
The board's annual report, released this week, showed 9.4% of patients waited more than four months for a specialist assessment and 16.1% waited more than four months for treatment.
The national target is for all patients to be seen and treated within four months.
The previous year, 97.8% of patients saw a specialist within the time frame, and 92% received treatment.
The annual report said that measure was important, as patients needed to be treated within a time frame where surgery would be beneficial.
Factors contributing to the delay included the volume of referrals and follow-up appointments for some services, and problems recruiting specialists in some disciplines.
"We are working in several areas to improve ... our efficiency in providing the clinical service through use of technology such as telehealth, providing `see and treat' appointments, and introducing nurse specialist clinics," the report said.
The SDHB fared better against other performance measures, including more babies being fully breast-fed at six weeks, a continuing rise in the number of year 10 pupils who had never smoked, and more people staying in their own home for longer.
However, the Southern district smoking rate remained above the national average, the number of avoidable hospital admissions rose, and the percentage of over-75s admitted to hospital after a fall rose last year.
"We may also be experiencing the consequences of a lack of falls-prevention services five to 10 years ago," the report said.
Working with WellSouth, a range of falls-prevention programmes had now been established, the report said.
The report also recorded the board's performance against national health targets, a performance measure the Government has asked the Ministry of Health to reconfigure.
Those figures showed the board failed to have 95% of patients admitted, discharged or transferred from emergency departments within six hours, which reflected ongoing issues with Dunedin Hospital's inadequate facilities in that department.
The board hit target in increasing elective surgeries and immunisations, offering help to quit smoking, and having 96% of obese children identified by a before-school health check.
In three out of four quarters, it failed to have 90% or more of cancer patients receive their first treatment within 62 days. However, achieving that target in the third quarter was the first time the SDHB had done so.
