Key points:
- The Government has laid out five major health targets, including shorter ED waits and quicker access to cancer treatment
- It has now set out how it says this will be achieved, including more beds in hospitals and more community chemotherapy access
- Labour has previously called the targets “half-baked” and an “afterthought”
The Health Minister has laid out the Government’s implementation plan for reaching its five health targets, which the Commissioner of Health NZ says can be achieved “within current resources”.
Earlier this year, Dr Shane Reti laid out the five health targets, which aim to shorten stays in emergency departments, shorten wait times to see specialists and receive treatments, to improve immunisation for children and for faster access to cancer treatments.
This morning at Hutt Hospital the Health Minister announced how it will go about reaching those targets.
Government’s health target implementation plan:
– To expand the number of beds and operating theatres in public hospitals and make greater use of capacity in private hospitals.
– Acute care will be separated from planned care to free up theatre space and reduce the number of cancellations.
– New radiography machines for cancer treatments
– Expanded access to stem cell transplantation in the main centres and more focus on patients who have waited more than a year to get them assessed or treated.
– Community infusion centres will also be opened for patients that need access to chemotherapy closer to home.
Reti said the Commissioner of Health New Zealand has assured him that these five health targets can be achieved within current resources.
“We’re already investing more in health than any Government in New Zealand’s history – around $30 billion a year,” said Reti.
“With that investment, we are also turning our backs on wasteful spending which doesn’t demonstrate better outcomes.
“Every dollar spent on health is precious, however dollar signs and numbers on a page won’t be the only way New Zealanders will see change in the health system.
“Our targets are designed so that every New Zealander should experience the change for themselves, however and whenever they need health care.
“Targets save lives.”
Laid out in March, the focus is on standardising care and improving infrastructure. (Source: 1News)
When the targets were announced in March, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall called them “half-baked”.
She said the Government had left the health system as an “afterthought”, saying the targets were at the last minute of the Government’s 100 day plan.
She said Reti had “ignored the general practice and primary care – the part of the health system which Kiwis use the most”.
