Health Minister Shane Reti reveals plan to improve healthcare system

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has revealed details of how the “ambitious health targets” the Government has set will be achieved, as the country’s health system continues to buckle under pressure.

“Earlier this year, I announced an ambitious new direction for health, reinvigorating five targets badly neglected by the previous government,” Reti said on a visit to Hutt Valley Hospital today.

“Our targets are now tightly focused on five things that really matter: faster cancer treatment, increasing childhood immunisation, shorter stays in emergency departments and shorter wait times for assessments and treatment.

“Without clear targets, performance slips. We need to focus resources, attention and accountability to improve performance.”

In March, Reti set out five targets he hoped to achieve within six years:

• 90% of patients to receive cancer management within 31 days of the decision to treat.
• 95% of children to be fully immunised at 24 months of age.
• 95% of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an emergency department within six hours.
• 95% of patients to wait less than four months for a first specialist appointment.
• 95% of patients to wait less than four months for elective treatment.

The plan to speed up cancer treatment includes addressing “unwarranted variation in access to care”, improving infrastructure, improving data collection and strengthening the cancer workforce.

“We are planning to establish more community infusion centres so patients can access their chemotherapy closer to home,” he said.

“There will also be new radiography machines for cancer treatment, expanded access to stem cell transplantation in main centres and more focus on patients who have waited more than a year to get them assessed or treated.”

To improve immunisation numbers for children, Reti plans to expand and increase the vaccination workforce, improve re-call activity, and increase community engagement amongst other initiatives.

“Without clear targets, performance slips. We need to focus resources, attention and accountability to improve performance.”

Reti wants to improve patient flow through hospitals to reduce wait times and enable primary care to treat more patients.

“We will expand the number of beds and operating theatres in public hospitals and make greater use of capacity in private hospitals,” he said.

“We will make sure that there is a separation between acute care, which people need in a hurry, and planned care, such as a scheduled hip operation, so operating theatres are operating more efficiently and there will be fewer cancellations.”

The plan talks about eliminating ”unnecessary follow-ups through developing alternative outpatient models of care.”

“The Commissioner of Health New Zealand has assured me these targets can and will be achieved within current resources and will come with regular and transparent reporting.”

Reti targeted “wasteful spending” and said the coalition Government was “investing more in health than any Government in New Zealand’s history – around $30 billion a year”.

“With that investment, we are also turning our backs on wasteful spending which doesn’t demonstrate better outcomes.

“Every dollar spent on health is precious, however dollar signs and numbers on a page won’t be the only way New Zealanders will see change in the health system.

“Targets save lives.”

Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.