Mixed results on latest health board report

Northland DHB chief executive Dr Nick Chamberlain said the health board has made progress in a challenging health board jurisdiction.

Northland District Health Board has come out with mixed results on the latest Ministry of Health report.

Four times a year, the Ministry reports every DHB's progress on six health measures ranging from cancer treatment to raising healthy kids. Released on Tuesday, the report covers October to December last year.

Of the six targets released, Northland DHB had improved three measures since the previous quarter, and had worsened on the other three.

Five of the six measures were below the national target, and the DHB sat in the bottom three of the 20 DHBs on three of the measures.

Northland DHB chief executive Nick Chamberlain said it has made progress recently, and said the targets only represent a small portion of what the health board does.

"Northland DHB have made good ground with these targets, particularly acknowledging the existing challenges associated with our population," Dr Chamberlain said.

"We would like to regularly reach all the targets, however many of them are set as a stretch goal."

The DHB's most marked improvement was providing cancer treatment within nine weeks of a referral - rising 7 percentage points from 76 to 83 per cent.

However, this still sat below the national target of 85 per cent.

A percentage point is the numerical difference between two percentages.

Northland also increased the number of elective surgeries delivered compared to the previous quarter, and increased its rate of assessment referral for children identified as obese.

Northland's rate of immunisation fell to 89 per cent, and now sits six percentage points below the target. The Ministry of Health target said 95 per cent of eight-month-old babies should receive immunisation courses at six weeks, three months and five months old.

Dr Chamberlain said hesitancy from parents about vaccinations was a challenge in Northland.

He said 8 per cent of parents defer or decline immunisation in Northland - twice the national rate.

"We are confident we have robust systems and processes in place, the gap is our decline rate which is our focus. The message is clear - immunisation is safe and is the best protection from preventable disease," Dr Chamberlain said.

He said Northland's "missed children" rate was lower than the national average, and the DHB was working "extremely hard" to improve the coverage rate.

Northland DHB was two percentage points off one target - transferring or discharging 95 per cent of emergency patients within six hours.

It was nine percentage points short of the target of offering 90 per cent of smokers help to quit in the last 15 months.

"It is also important to not put all of our effort and resource into meeting targets as this is only a relatively small slice of the health system and does not in any way reflect all of the other excellent initiatives and achievements. The targets measure a small portion of our business," Dr Chamberlain said.