Nearly 22,000 Bay of Plenty smokers have received quitting advice from their GPs in the past year, surpassing the national health target for the first time.
The Ministry of Health's Better Help for Smokers to Quit target is part of the Government's drive towards making New Zealand Smokefree by 2025. It states 90 per cent of enrolled patients who smoke and are seen by a health practitioner in general practice should be offered advice to quit smoking.
"The Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) and its three Primary Health Organisation (PHO) partners have achieved the target for the first time with a result of 94 per cent," said BOPDHB planning and funding population health portfolio manager Brian Pointon.
Mr Pointon congratulated general practice health professionals for their hard work and progress against the target.
"Their collective efforts will lead to fewer people smoking and improved health outcomes for the rest of their lives," he said. "This excellent result is a culmination of steady improvement over a few years rather than a one-off surge that may not be sustainable.
What it means is that more people are being given the advice which can lead to quitting."
A total of 21,686 patients who smoked were given brief advice to quit in the 12 months to 30 September, 2014. A third of those, 6751 patients, were supported to begin an actual quit attempt; for example being given a referral to a smoking cessation specialist service or being prescribed nicotine replacement therapy.
The BOPDHB was one of only eight district health boards across the country (there are 20 in New Zealand) to achieve the target. It also met and exceeded both the Improved Access to Elective (Planned) Surgery and Shorter Waits for Cancer Treatment targets in other results released today.
Other health targets included Shorter Stays in the Emergency Department (ED) where the BOPDHB again improved its ranking (to 13th) for patients to be admitted, discharged, or transferred from an ED within six hours.
"This is a strong result given the traditional increase in acute presentations during the winter months and is the highest quarter one result since the target began," said the Ministry of Health's deputy director-general policy Don Gray.
Ongoing increasing ED presentation numbers saw 12,754 patients presenting at Tauranga Hospital in July-September 2014. This figure was 16 per cent higher than the same period two years ago.
A result of 88 per cent was recorded against the Increased Immunisation target of 95 per cent of eight-month-olds having their primary course of immunisation at six weeks, three months and five months on time. A working group has recently been established to address the measures needed to once more reach the historically high rates attained against this target in the past.
The BOPDHB maintained its performance of 87 per cent from the previous quarter against the More Heart and Diabetes Checks target of 90 per cent of the eligible population having had their cardiovascular risk assessed in the last five years. Amongst other initiatives to improve these results the BOPDHB is working with local iwi focussing on Maori men aged 35 to 50 years.