Media release from Waikato District Health Board

Health Waikato broke records galore in the financial year just ended but the most satisfying for chief operating officer Jan Adams was the "break even" financial performance which she described as the first she could recall in her 14 years with Waikato DHB's hospital and health services provider arm.

Speaking at today's Health Waikato Advisory Committee meeting in Hamilton, Mrs Adams said the year-end position reflected improvement in activity across all service areas.

"We all gain enormous pride and satisfaction in knowing that many more patients received expert services and treatment in a timely manner," she said. (For all the figures http://www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/healthwaikato)

Health Waikato discharged 90,500 patients, completed 23,456 surgical operations, had 193,047 outpatient and 86,450 emergency department attendances in the 12 months from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010 across its five hospitals in Hamilton, Thames, Te Kuiti, Tokoroa and Te Awamutu and continuing care facilities in Te Awamutu and Morrinsville.

Staff welcomed 4033 babies, delivered 680,952 patient meals in hospital and 38,562 by meals on wheels. Nurses and allied health staff made more than 350,000 rural and community visits, mental health staff had 126,500 community visits and laboratories processed 7.73 million blood tests.

Health Waikato's revenue was $664 million with costs of $672 million. But those costs included one off decanting, demolition and design write off costs associated with the $500 million building programme at Waikato Hospital. It was essentially a break even result, said Mrs Adams.

"It's been a stunning year and that's thanks to a lot of people.

"General surgery, orthopaedics, vascular surgery and obstetrics performed well above planned levels all year, as did our emergency departments, hospitals outpatient clinics and generally across the whole organisation. I'm very proud of what we achieved.

"Cardiothoracic surgery throughput reached an all time high with 503 surgical procedures completed - a huge increase from the previous annual average of 350 procedures and a first for the unit since it opened in 1989. This achievement has vastly improved patient wait times and reflects the great commitment from staff, increased theatre efficiency and process improvements."

The health targets for 2009/2010 relating to Health Waikato were:

·        waiting times in emergency department

·        elective surgery volumes

·        shorter waits for cancer treatment

·        better help for smokers to quit.

"We continue to have challenges around meeting the target of 95 per cent of patients being admitted, discharged or transferred from an emergency department within six hours. At Waikato we are using a number of different approaches to improve performance including encouraging the consultant on call for the top five specialties (general medicine, cardiology, orthopaedics, respiratory, general surgery) to visit the ED at the end of each day to check on the registrar and on the workload for their particular speciality," said Mrs Adams.

"We performed above target for elective surgery which is a credit to everyone and we are meeting the six week target for those needing radiation treatment and are 100 per cent for the four week target due for implementation in December 2010.  We are also improving our performance around providing smokers with advice and help to quit.

"So let's reflect on jobs well done within Health Waikato before we focus on this year with the main priorities being process reform and improvement, reduction and elimination of waste," said Mrs Adams.

Other highlights for Health Waikato include:

·        BreastScreen Midland performed above forecasted volumes achieving a record 31,343 screening mammograms almost 1000 more than the previous year.

·        The Forensic Mental Health Services rebuild is going well. The opening next month will be a significant re-launch of the entire service including the partnership between Hauora Waikato and Waikato DHB.

·        The productive community modules are going very well and improvement measures agreed for the pilot are on track. They are:

o       improve staff wellbeing

o       patient safety and reliability of care

o       improve patient experience

o       improve productivity

·        The radiology review will cover production planning, patient journey mapping and process improvements

·        The Programme Management Office delivered a number of successful projects including the patient safety programme

·        Midland Cancer Network continued to focus on service improvement initiatives to improve access and management of lung and bowel cancer.