Hospital rates poor in emergency waiting times

The Bay is lagging behind other health boards when it comes to emergency department waiting times.
That is according to the latest Ministry of Health report into health board performance.
The Hospital Benchmark Information Report compiles data from the 21 district health boards in New Zealand - and the figures for the last quarter of 2004 show the Bay of Plenty board is statistically one of the worst performers in that category in the country.
While the Ministry of Health stresses the report should not be used for out-and-out comparisons between boards because each has its own specific population and service needs, it says they should use the statistics to appraise their own situation.
The Bay's health board missed all three of the benchmark targets for its triage service in its emergency departments at Tauranga and Whakatane hospitals.
The combined figure for triage 1 category patients - those who face an immediate threat to their life or limb and must be seen immediately - was the sixth-worst performance of the 21 boards.
For triage 2 cases, where patients have a potential or imminent threat to life or limb and must be seen within 10 minutes, the Bay health board beat only three others.
And for triage 3 patients, who have conditions that need urgent management and must be seen within 30 minutes, the Bay's performance was bettered by all but five boards.
Since then, the 2005 figures to the end of March have been compiled locally, and little has changed.
However, the reality behind the figures was a more accurate indicator, according to Graham Dyer, chief operating officer of Pacific Health, a division of the health board.
He said triage staff were more interested in resuscitating the patient than in recording the time when the patient came in.
"There wouldn't be a DHB in the country where triage 1 category patients were not seen at once," he said.
"Staff are working on them as they come in the door. They (Ministry of Health) are talking about how long it takes until they are seen by a doctor."
He said it was always unlikely the Bay board would hit the benchmark targets for triage 2 and 3.
"We are looking at staffing levels in Tauranga and Whakatane. It's an area that we could do better in."
The two local hospitals attended to 7251 patients in the quarter to December 2004, down from the 7632 recorded in the quarter to September 2004. There had been a slight improvement in the percentage of patients seen within the triage times, the report stated, although none of the benchmarks were met.
Mr Dyer said part of the issue was the size of the Bay's health board.
"We are the fifth or sixth biggest in the country, and the compliance is almost inversely proportionate to the size."
He said none of the big boards had scored well in that area.
"The smaller boards traditionally do better in those areas."
However, the Bay board was one of the top performers in the financial management category, undertaking more work than it was contracted for and posting "significantly favourable" results.