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Primary Health Organisations continue to improve performance against health indicatorsPrimary Health Organisations (PHOs) continue to make good progress against a set of agreed national health indicators.
The Chair of the PHO Performance Programme’s Governance Group during the period under review, Brett Paradine, says it is pleasing to see continued improvement across all indicators in the latest data. “In particular we’re pleased that progress is being made in narrowing the gap between diverse population groups”, he says. “Diabetes is a serious health challenge for all New Zealanders so it is significant that the national average performance of all PHOs exceeded the Programme goal. In total, more than 100,000 New Zealanders with diabetes received their annual diabetes review during 2010, an increase of more than 19,000 on the previous year.” All PHOs continue to improve or maintain their breast screening coverage, with 21 PHOs (34.4%) achieving the Programme goal of 70% for the total population. With Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) as the leading single cause of death in New Zealand Mr Paradine said it was particularly gratifying to see that over half the PHOs significantly increased their IHD detection rates compared to the previous period. Mr Paradine says regular reporting of PHOs’ performance informs the public about how their local PHO is doing on key health priorities. “The data provides a very useful overview of how PHOs are performing but it needs to be read in context,” he says. “Not all PHOs are the same – they serve very diverse communities and may have quite different starting points when it comes to making performance gains.” He says the health indicators measure the data collection and reporting process, not just the health care delivered, and they do not describe everything that PHOs do to improve the health of their communities. Visit the Planning and Funding web page for more information. ENDS Date: 21 July 2011 For more information contact: Sri Krishnamurthi District Health Boards New Zealand 04 381 5150 or 027 530 7042 Additional InformationThe PHO Performance Programme’s Governance Group is made up of representatives from the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs), the Ministry of Health, and the current 34 PHOs and primary care providers. It was established to improve the delivery of primary health care and reduce inequalities in health provision. DHBs contract PHOs to deliver health care services for people when they are unwell, to help people stay healthy and to reach out to groups of people in the community who have poor health or are missing out on primary health care. The PHO Performance Programme has developed a number of indicators to measure PHO achievements over a six-month period. Some indicators look at services accessed by all patients enrolled in PHOs, while other indicators examine services specifically accessed by Maori or Pacific people, and/or those living in lower socio-economic areas. One of the Programme’s main aims is to reduce existing health gaps so that all New Zealanders, whatever their ethnicity or standard of living, have access to the health services they need in order to be healthy. |
