New Zealand can be proud of its public health system, with increasing funding made available in every budget, although congestion has led to long waiting periods at public hospitals and other health centres.
While people cannot easily access a number of specialised services including mamoography, CT scan, the attention that they receive once ‘inside the system,’ is among the best in the world.
However, according to Health Minister Tony Ryall, people suffering from common diseases such as diabetes and heart-related ailments and those keen on kicking the smoking habit now receive faster and better attention.
DHBs well-tuned
“District Health Boards (DHBs) have made substantial progress since the Government streamlined national health targets four years ago to improve health services for patients. That continues this quarter with further improvements helping provide New Zealanders with better experiences in health care,” he said.
Mr Ryall said that 94% of patients were admitted, discharged, or transferred from emergency departments this quarter within the six hour target, the best result to date. But he admitted that one patient missed the target for shorter waits for cancer treatment by two days.
Approximately 2700 other patients with cancer started radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment in this period within the gold standard of four weeks. The target for heart and diabetes checks reached 58.9% during this quarter, registering 3.6% improvement over the previous quarter.
“About 45,000 people had a heart and diabetes check carried out by their GP team this quarter, bringing the total number of people who have received a five-yearly check to 741,268. The hospital target for providing better help for smokers to quit is working well with all DHBs achieving more than 90%, with. 31,799 hospital patients who smoked offered help to quit,” Mr Ryall said.
He said that the target for elective surgery was also achieved, with 6878 more operations conducted. A total of 116,171 operations were performed, accounting for 6% increase. The increased immunisation target remained at 89% this quarter.
“Seventeen DHBs achieved the 85% target, which meant that 13,698 of the 15,401 eligible children were fully immunised by eight-months of age in this quarter. This helps ensure children have the best start,” he said.
Budget 2013, presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Bill English on May 16, 2013, had the largest funding allocation for the health sector, with additional amount of $1.6 billion over the next four years for new initiatives and to meet cost pressures and population growth.
Total spending on health will be $14.7 billion during the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the highest ever in New Zealand’s history.
“While many developed countries are freezing or even reducing health funding, this Government is committed to protecting and growing our public health services. About $191 million taken from savings and reprioritisation, will also go back into healthcare,” Mr Ryall said.
Prudent management of the health budget, including DHBs reducing their deficits from $150 million four years ago to around $25 million (excluding Canterbury), has allowed the Government to invest more money into new health initiatives, he said.
“Health has received around a third of all new operating funding in the Budget. This boost to health funding is due to careful financial management over the past four years. Despite continuing tight financial times, this Budget investment is a reflection our commitment to growing and protecting our public health services,” Mr Ryall said.
Health in Budget 2013
Some Highlights
$70 million for aged care and dementia services, including $20 million in home-based support to help older New Zealanders live in their homes longer
$12 million for dementia-bed subsidies to encourage further investment
$2 million for a dementia awareness/early detection programme
$1.5 million towards training aged-care staff to carry out the new regular interRAI assessments of their residents health and wellbeing
$1.2 million over three years for dementia-related training for health care workers
DHBs have been funded to invest an additional $33.2 million in aged-residential-care subsidies over four years.
$35.5 million for diabetes and heart disease
$12.4 million to improve and accelerate the provision of local diabetes-care programmes including enhanced diabetes nursing or more podiatry services
$7.2 million to double the number of GP and nurse Green Prescriptions
$100 million over four years to help meet population changes and cost pressures in disability support services
$48 million over four years for more elective operations such as hip replacements and cataracts
