Child vaccine rates improve

Ninety-six per cent of Wanganui eight-month-old children have been fully immunised.

Immunisation is the big winner in the Whanganui District Health Board's (WDHB) latest health targets.

Ninety-six per cent of Wanganui eight-month-old children have been fully immunised - above the national target of 95 per cent, and well above the previous figure of 92 per cent.

This sees the WDHB jump from 11th place to second place, out of 20 district health boards.

Increased immunisation is one of six health targets set by the Government to measure the performances of public health services.

The other targets are shorter stays in emergency departments, improved access to elective surgery, faster cancer treatment, help for smokers to quit, and more heart and diabetes checks.

Health targets are measured four times a year.

Increased immunisation was one of several health targets that improved for the WDHB over the past quarter.

The target for shorter stays in the emergency department is that 95 per cent of patients are admitted, discharged, or transferred from an emergency department within six hours.

In the latest figures, WDHB's performance improved from 93 per cent to 96 per cent.

The target of better helping smokers quit - 95 per cent of smokers seen in public hospitals and 90 per cent of smokers seen by GPs are offered advice on how to quit smoking - was a mixed result for Whanganui.

The public hospital figure is 96 per cent, above the target but slightly below the previous quarter's figure of 97 per cent. The GP figure is at 87 per cent, up from the previous quarter's figure of 84 per cent.

The faster cancer treatment target is 85 per cent of patients receive their first treatment within 62 days of being referred.

The health board is well behind this on 62 per cent, ranked 15th out of 20 DHBs. However, none of the DHBs have met this target.

This is a new target and has only been introduced by the Government this quarter.