The Whanganui District Health Board’s national health target results were praised at today’s Hospital Advisory Committee meeting.

The 2010/2011 quarter one results, released by the Ministry of Health last week, show Whanganui DHB has made improvements against four of the six health targets.

	Whanganui Result	National Goal	Change from previous quarter
Shorter stays in emergency departments	94%	95%	No change
Improved access to elective surgery	110%	100%	2% increase
Shorter waits for cancer treatment	100%	100%	No change
Increased immunisation	88%	90%	1% increase
Better help for smokers to quit	49%	90%	7% increase
Better diabetes and cardiovascular services	72%	N/A	2% increase

   
Whanganui DHB chief executive Julie Patterson is pleased with the progress and the continual commitment of staff to achieve the targets.

 “I am delighted that we continue to excel in improved access to elective surgery and have exceeded the target by 10%” said Mrs Patterson.

“Our immunisation coverage rate for two year olds has also increased and is on track to achieve the end of year target of 90%. This week we were presented with an achievement award from Health Minister Tony Ryall in recognition of our strong performance for this target last year.”

Mrs Patterson acknowledged the considerable efforts that the district health boards primary care colleagues make and that the achievement against the immunisation target is a reflection of their hard work.

“We have had a significant increase for our smoking target this quarter, but considerably more work needs to be done to achieve the 90% target.”

Mrs Patterson said although the emergency department target has remained the same, the result is encouraging coming out of an exceptionally busy winter period and the disruption caused by the recent industrial action.