March 11, 2024
Health targets expose equity challenge
Health Minister Shane Reti says equity issues for Māori and people in rural areas could delay the Government’s meeting its new health targets.
The targets announced last week as the final bullet point in the 100-day action plan include faster cancer treatment, improved immunisation rates, shorter stays in emergency departments, shorter wait times for first specialist assessments and shorter times for elective treatment.
Dr Reti says that may require extra effort by Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand in the regions, especially in areas like immunisation rates.
“One of the things were going to need to work on really quickly is the regional variability – that’s equity of demography because it’s quite wide spread including here in Northland, so within those targets we’ll figure out how we can target those areas, particularly the outliers and laggers,” he says.
Dr Reti says he is deeply concerned on the impact of measles outbreak on Māori.
The Government’s targets announced last week are:
90 percent of patients to receive cancer management within 31 days. 95 percent of children to be fully immunised at 24 months of age. 95 percent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an ED within six hours. 95 percent of patients to wait less than four months for treatment. 95 percent of patients to wait less than four months for elective treatment.