John Key –
The National-led Government is working hard to deliver better, quicker, and more convenient healthcare to all New Zealanders.
To help achieve this, we have created a set of national health targets designed to improve the performance of health services across New Zealand.
Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman recently released the latest quarterly results for these heath targets.
These results showed that the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) around the country are making good overall progress in meeting these targets.
Surgeries surge
DHBs carried out more than 5400 more elective surgeries than planned in the last three months of 2014. Other highlights include 87% of eligible people had their heart and diabetes check, and 67% of patients with high suspicion of cancer received their first treatment within the new international gold-standard target of 62 days.
We also achieved an all-time high for immunisation rates of young babies, with 94% of eight-month olds being fully immunised. This means more babies than ever before are being protected against whooping cough and other serious preventable diseases.
Better Service Programme
These results are part of the Government’s Better Public Services programme, designed to improve the lives of New Zealanders, particularly the most vulnerable.
For example, there has now been a considerable reduction in rheumatic fever rates.
There is still a lot of work to do and we will continue to focus on making strides on the things that matter to New Zealanders and their families.
Last fortnight, I was pleased to welcome Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on his first official visit to New Zealand.
His visit continued a long-standing tradition of regular and substantive contact between the Prime Ministers of our two countries.
During the visit, we held our Annual Leaders’ meeting and discussed a range of political, economic, social and security issues.
Trans-Tasman events
We also marked some significant Trans-Tasman events including the Centenary of the World War I and watched Australia and New Zealand battle at the Cricket World Cup.
John Key is Prime Minister of New Zealand
