The teen's lawyers, Tracy Donald and Dave Sayes, applied to have the charges dropped and argued the delay had unduly protracted proceedings.
Changes have already been made in response to the Court's criticism, says Ian McKenzie, Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand Te Tai Tokerau general manager mental health and addiction services.
Among the improvements is the appointment of an interim clinical lead to oversee the clinical delivery of the youth forensic service, he said.
Furthermore, the health service was in the process of developing and completing quality reviews to identify and highlight areas of concern.
''This will be an ongoing and regular process so that as we become aware of an issue, we can address it before this impacts on young people and the community," McKenzie said.
He said they were working to identify where delays in the report could have been reduced and work was underway to address unnecessary delays.
Judge Davis told the Whangārei District Court the teen absconded from electronically-monitored bail twice during the wait for the report and then absconded twice more from non-secure Oranga Tamariki facilities.
He re-offended during those times, the lawyers said.
"We are reviewing current processes and pathways and where appropriate streamlining internal pathways to be more consistent with other regions,'' McKenzie said.
"We are looking to provide further interventions for this population and are upskilling clinicians to complete this work."
McKenzie said the health authority worked hard to avoid delays and reports were usually completed within the accepted timeframes.
''However, if several reports are ordered in quick succession or within the same court session, this may cause a delay for one or more of those reports.
"Wherever possible we make every attempt to reduce delays and plan for times of the year where there may be issues with a report writer's availability," he said.
