Immunisation remained a priority, and she was pleased that immunisation rates for 2-year-olds had increased from 68.1% in the previous quarter (to March) to 74.5% in the June quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to deliver outreach and other immunisation services according to the need of the community (in-home, clinics, events, etc) and work closely with health providers across Tair\u0101whiti, improve systems through the Aotearoa Immunisation Register, address vaccine hesitancy and increase our vaccinator workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrington said close collaboration with Waikato Hospital, where Gisborne cancer patients often received treatment, had helped Tair\u0101whiti meet the faster cancer treatment target for 2030, which is that 90% of patients receive cancer management within 31 days of the decision to treat.<\/p>\n
The Tair\u0101whiti result was 93.3%, compared to a national average of 86.3%. <\/p>\n
Barrington said Tair\u0101whiti had a dedicated team of medical practitioners, including cancer nurse co-ordinators and a medical oncology nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means we can service a number of cancer treatments locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen patients need care at other hospitals, the team work with supporting services to ensure that surgeries and appointments are facilitated within the target time frames as much as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong local uptake of the National Bowel Screening Programme, which identifies cancer markers earlier, means we are often able to treat patients before they need more intensive cancer treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Gisborne Hospital continued to perform among the top hospitals for the shorter stays in ED target, with 92.8% of patients admitted, treated or discharged within six hours. That exceeded the national average of 73.9% and was not far from the 2030 target of 95%.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been supported by our Integrated Operations Centre and the opening of the Wellness, Health Access and Intervention Unit, which is a dedicated area for lower-acuity patients that helps free up space in ED.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the June quarter, 70.2% of Tair\u0101whiti patients waited less than four months for elective treatment. That compares to a national average of 63.9% and a 2030 target of 95%.<\/p>\n
Barrington said Tair\u0101whiti had partnered with private providers in Hawke\u2019s Bay for ear, nose and throat services, and Gisborne for additional orthopaedics capacity to reduce waiting lists.<\/p>\n
There were many factors contributing to waiting times, including:<\/p>\n
Patients requiring further investigations before initiating treatment. Patients needing to have one type of treatment before another (such as surgery before chemotherapy, or chemotherapy before radiation therapy). A range of other unrelated illnesses can cause delays, including Covid. Patient choice.<\/p>\n
In Tair\u0101whiti, 63.4 of patients waited less than four months for a First Specialist Assessment. The national average is 62% and the 2030 target is 95%.<\/p>\n
Barrington said there had been a slight drop in Tair\u0101whiti\u2019s FSA since the same quarter in 2024, but patients were accessing their appointments, diagnostics and treatments earlier than they had been.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is continuous planning to ensure we are meeting the demands of our community and the services that we provide. We are concentrating our efforts on ensuring that long-waiting patients are provided an appointment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith every new patient that is seen for FSA and then moved to a treatment list, the demand also increases for follow-up appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still committed to the 95% target.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patients waiting for their FSA who were concerned that their condition had changed should contact their GP, she said.<\/p>\n
The East Coast MP, National\u2019s Dana Kirkpatrick, said the Health Target results showed positive progress, with child immunisation rates climbing and wait times for targeted treatments decreasing.<\/p>\n
The results followed the restoration of urgent care and after-hours services in May, delivered by Ng\u0101ti Porou Oranga at Puhi Kaiti Medical Centre in Kaiti.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese results are extremely encouraging and demonstrate our Government\u2019s ongoing commitment to reducing risk and improving outcomes for patients across the core health system,\u201d Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know there is still a lot to do to get healthcare to where our people need it to be, and I\u2019m focused on seeing this work through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gisborne-based Labour list MP Jo Luxton said healthcare was more expensive because of decisions made by National, which had pushed some GP appointment costs close to $100.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a GP, we know families aren\u2019t receiving the healthcare they need until it becomes an emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn districts like ours, we have remote communities with higher needs, but the Government has done nothing to make healthcare more accessible.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we see are low immunisation rates, expensive and busy doctors, and the removal of free prescriptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNational are not making the lives of our people better; they\u2019re making it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Immunisation remained a priority, and she was pleased that immunisation rates for 2-year-olds had increased from 68.1% in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[33039,5432,3013,2511,2516,39881,3011,266,134,527,66160,78,17576,3025,111,139,35837,69,193,21940,28228,381,10715,8466,38889,6100,30279,8220,102],"class_list":["post-87381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-17th","tag-between","tag-but","tag-child","tag-concern","tag-districts","tag-four","tag-government","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-immunisation","tag-in","tag-low","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-ninth","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-placed","tag-ranking","tag-region","tag-remains","tag-second","tag-shines","tag-still","tag-tairwhiti","tag-targets","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}