There was a national one, and then one for each of the four regions.
When there is so much criticism of our health system, it is understandable he wants everyone to believe the system is turning a corner after years of decline which he blames on the previous government.
The government has set targets which it expects to reach by 2030, with annual milestones on the way.
While three of the five health targets were on track nationally, the picture is not so rosy when individual districts’ performance is examined.
Later in the week, the progress on meeting the five mental health targets was reported by Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey, also showing national improvement overall but patchy performance in the districts.
The post code lottery in publicly funded health care might be a cliche, but the figures show it is an enduring one.
Nationally, in the last quarter of 2024/25 which ended in June, the milestone targets for faster cancer treatment, faster access to first specialist assessments, and shorter waits for elective treatments were all met.
The figures also show that the milestone for 74% of patients to be admitted or discharged from emergency departments (EDs) within six hours was almost met at 73.9%.
We wonder whether the figures will show much improvement in the next quarter when the impact of some horrendous winter overloading of our EDs shows up.
The RNZ examination of two weeks of data at the height of winter for eight hospitals, including Dunedin, showed some of them were treating twice the number of patients they had capacity for on some days.
Dunedin Hospital, which has 31 beds, was at 187% of its capacity on one August day.
The percentage of children nationally who are fully immunised at the age of 2 has risen from 76.2% last year to 82%.
In immunisation, the poorest figures are for Northland, an area which may be on the brink of a measles outbreak. (Six cases of the illness have been recorded in Northland in recent days and an unrelated one in Queenstown.)
Northland’s performance went backwards in the April to June quarter, from 66.4% to 62.3%.
Given the amount the government has talked about the need to improve the vaccination statistics, it is concerning the very area which needs the most input is still lagging behind the rest of the country.
When it comes to measles, which is highly contagious, there will be an unknown number of older children and adults born after 1969, in Northland and elsewhere, who will not be protected from the illness.
The target does not capture that.
A catch-up measles vaccination campaign by the previous government was a fizzer and there does not seem to be any push to re-ignite it despite repeated concerns from public health advocates about the risks posed by low immunisation coverage.
Mr Brown frequently mentions the increased numbers of people who have received faster elective surgery during the government’s reign, but seven of the 20 districts did not reach that milestone and nine did not reach the milestone for first specialist assessments.
The huge waiting lists for diagnostic procedures such as scans do not feature in the targets either.
People languishing on these lists may be yet to receive their first specialist assessment or get on to a waiting list for an elective procedure.
Last week Mr Brown announced a $65 million diagnostic improvement plan, expected to deliver an additional 75,000 diagnostic procedures this year.
While this was welcome news, there is scepticism about how easy this will be to achieve, given the staffing and equipment limits in both the public and private sector.
Mr Brown recognises that despite progress, too many people are still waiting too long for care and is determined to bring waiting times down.
The debate continues about whether the targets’ focus on a limited number of issues is the best way to achieve that everywhere.
