KEY POINTS:
A health service watchdog says progress in improving services is slow, patchy and uncoordinated.
But patients' complaints are making a difference, Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson said in his annual report.
The commissioner's office received $7.2 million from the Health vote, of which $3.33 million was spent on staff costs.
The annual report showed that the commissioner is paid between $210,000 and $220,000 a year and a total of five staff earned more than $100,000 a year. There were six redundancy payments in the year, totalling $46,603.
The Health and Disability Commissioner received 1076 complaints in 2005/06, slightly down on the 1124 the year before and 89 per cent were resolved without a formal investigation.
Of the 116 complaints resolved after or during a formal investigation, 51 per cent of completed investigations resulted in a finding of breach of the code.
Most of the breaches involved deficiencies in assessment and treatment, lack of care co-ordination, poor communication and inadequate record-keeping .
Mr Paterson said there continued to be "significant challenges to improve patient safety and the quality of care in hospitals and the community".
Although much was being done at a national level and by individual district health boards, there was no national body equivalent to the newly established Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to lead quality improvement efforts, he said.
Mr Paterson said transparency and accountability in the publicly funded health system was promoted when he named public hospitals and district health boards found in breach of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights for systemic issues.
But progress in tackling the safety and quality of health care in New Zealand has been slow, patchy and uncoordinated in comparison with Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
A New Zealand Quality of Healthcare Study in 2001 reported that 12.9 per cent of public hospital admissions were associated with an adverse event, and 30 per cent of adverse events were judged to be preventable.
- NZPA
