Health figures improve, more work to do: minister
More cancer patients are receiving their first treatment within 31 days, more children are getting immunised, and more patients are being admitted, discharged, or transferred from an emergency department within six hours.
But the proportions of patients waiting longer than four months to see a specialist or receive elective treatment have slightly increased.
Health New Zealand has released its latest quarterly update on the government's health targets, for Q3 2024-25.
The government has set health targets focused on cutting down wait times, increasing childhood immunisations, and faster cancer treatments by 2030.
The targets, set in 2024, include: 90% of patients to receive cancer treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat (milestone of 86% in 2024-25)
95% of children immunised at 24 months of age (milestone of 84% in 2024-25)
95% of patients to be admitted, discharged, or transferred from an emergency department within six hours (milestone of 74% in 2024-25)
95% of patients waiting less than four months for a first specialist assessment (milestone of 62% in 2024-25)
95% of patients waiting less than four months for elective treatment (milestone of 63% in 2024-25)
The latest update shows: 84.6% of patients receiving cancer treatment 31 days of the decision to treat (up from 83% in Q3 2023-24)
79.3% of children immunised at 24 months of age (up from 76.9% in Q3 2023-24)
74.2% of patients admitted, discharged, or transferred from an emergency department within six hours (up from 70.1% in Q3 2023-24)
58.2% of patients waiting less than four months for a first specialist assessment (down from 59.2% in Q3 2023-24)
57.3% of patients waiting less than four months for elective treatment (down from 59.3% in Q3 2023-24)
Health Minister Simeon Brown said there was still more work to do, but it was a step in the right direction.
"Restoring performance and accountability takes time, and we remain focused on continuing to deliver improvements," he said.
Brown acknowledged the percentage of patients waiting longer for elective procedures and first specialist assessments had increased, but said the number of patients waiting had dropped by 1891 between January and March 2025.
"In the last quarter alone, more than 48,000 elective procedures and 167,000 first specialist assessments were completed. That's thousands of New Zealanders getting back to work, returning to everyday life, and regaining their quality of life," he said.
Some patients have been able to access the Elective Boost policy, which sees Health New Zealand partner up with private hospitals to expand surgical capacity for procedures like hip and knee replacements, cataract surgeries, hernia repairs, tonsillectomies, and ear operations.
More than 9500 procedures have been delivered as part of the policy, with Brown saying the majority were those who had been waiting longer than four months.
The government recently announced plans to bake the health targets into legislation, requiring all health strategies to give effect to them. Law and order targets well ahead of schedule
The government's law and order targets are well ahead of schedule, with one achieved and the other nearing completion.
Quarterly data for the three months to February showed the number of adults experiencing violent crime fell below the target of 165,000 people or fewer, to 157,144.
It marks achievement of the goal of a reduction of 20,000 people being victim of an assault, robbery, or sexual assault offence.
The other law and order target of reducing youth offending by 15% was also on track, with the number of offenders - 942 - closing in on the target of 900 or fewer, and accounting for a 13% decrease.
Both targets had a deadline for completion by 2030.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the government had "wasted no time overhauling a culture of excuses left behind by the last administration", saying there was more work to do but the results were a sign the government was headed in the right direction.
"We've provided police and the courts with extra tools to go after gangs, brought back a revised three strikes sentencing regime, restored real consequences for crime by limiting sentence discounts, and scrapped Section 27 reports. We do, however, expect the data to remain volatile, and there's still more work to do to continue driving these numbers down."
Children's Minister Karen Chhour said the government had trialled "bold new responses to this long-standing issue" of youth offending, including data-driven regional responses.
"We continue to want better for, and from, these young people. This is a strong start, but we're committed to sustained and meaningful success for our communities," she said.
Reporting from the Herald shows Ministry of Justice advice suggests the drop in violent crime over the past year reflects a return to trends seen between 2018 and 2022.
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