Simeon Brown: Health Minister on health targets improving in the last quarter

The Health Minister acknowledges more work's needed to ensure the Government's targets are met in every region. 

Data shows there's been improvements around cancer treatment access, childhood immunisation rates, ED stays, and wait times. 

But regional averages paint a different picture, with Counties Manukau and Auckland going backwards in ED wait times. 

Simeon Brown told Mike Hosking that decrease is due to localized factors. 

He says there's been a significant increase in people turning up to those hospitals' EDs, which has an impact on wait times. 

Child immunisation rates have seen the biggest lift among the targets.  

The proportion of children fully immunised by age two is up more than five points, to 82 percent. 

Brown told Hosking significant work is going into lifting immunisation rates to avoid declines like those seen in the US. 

He says they're investing more money and working with primary care, but adds that some regions need more work. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A health check on our health sector back home. This

(00:02):
is a Q two April through June. Canter pations starting
treatment within thirty one days, that's up two point eight percent.
Good emergency department wait times are better seventy three point
nine percent seen within six hours. That's up from seventy
one point two percent. Children fully immunized by up to
eighty two percent from seventy six point five. Simeon Brown's
health minister, and is with us, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Make how much are we messing with numbers here? Something's
gone from seventy two point or seventy one point two
to seventy three point nine. They're just numbers, aren't they.
You can message numbers to your blue in the face now.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
These are the health five health targets that the government
has set. These are recorded and then validated to show
the changes over time. And what we're seeing here is
over the last twelve months, we're seeing improvement against our
health targets. People waiting less time for elective surgeries, less
time for our first specialist appointments, immunization rates are going up,

(00:53):
and people being seen faster in emergency departments. So we
are seeing improvement against our health takes, which is a
good thing, but we also acknowledge as a long way
to go to make sure that all New Zealanders are
getting that access to timely quality healthcare that they need
and deserve.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
There are averages because counties Manicount and Auckland have gone
backwards in ed for example. Is that population? Is it efficiency?
Is a resource? What is it all?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Look? There will be a number of factors. If you
look at the emergency department. One, there has been a
significant increase in the number of presentations, so a number
of people turning up to emergency departments. So clearly that
has an impact on the efficiency of those hospitals and
their emergency departments. We just last week announced some more
resource going into emergency departments AUS. We acknowledge there's a

(01:36):
huge amount of pressure in those areas. On average, across
the country we are seeing improvement, but yes, there are
some districts which need additional investment and that's what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
The shorter way times an elective. Is it as simple
as saying, go for cataracts, here's some money, do it.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, it's a range of different different surgeries that are
needed and so that's where our elective boost has played
a big part. That's been cataracts a big part of it.
That is a big part of the weight list, but
also hip operations, the operations, hernier operations, the whole range
of different procedures that we've been working to deliver and
reduce those weight times. And so it's a range of

(02:13):
procedures and the good news is we're seeing, you know,
fewer people waiting and we're seeing the weight times reduced,
so that's a good thing. And that target we've seen
improvements in every single district across the country. So right
across the country, some districts very significant increases, other districts.
Every district has had an improvement, which I think is

(02:34):
good news, particularly for those people who are waiting in pain.
That makes a real difference to their lives.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
The cancer uses that purely pharmic money and pills.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, it's more around making sure that people, once they've
been diagnosed, are getting their treatment in a timely fashion.
For the most people that's actually a surgery. For some
it's radiation therapy or chemotherapy, others it's other medicines. So
those medicines certainly assist, but it's about making sure that
there's a time, the time between diagnoses and being treated

(03:04):
as less than thirty one days. That's the target that
we're seeking to achieve. Thankfully, that's one of the targets
which didn't really go backwards under the last government. The
other four did. That one actually stayed relatively stable, which
is good news. Those new thirty three cancer medicines obviously
provide more cancer treatments for more New Zealanders, which is encouraging.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
That immunization number seems material seven points seventy six point
five to eighty two percent, and that goes against I
was reading something in the States the other day. They
got real issue about the tin hatters and the weirdo's
and the COVID and all that sort of stuff, and
immunization in general is going down. Why are we bucking
the trend?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, there's a huge amount of work going into improving
those immunization rates, where we're investing more money in immunizations.
We're working with primary care in particular, who play critically
important role. I don't think we have some of those
same challenges that you might see over in the States
in terms of what we see here. There are certainly
some districts which need to have more emphasis put in

(04:00):
them to improve that rate even further. But by and large,
you know what we saw in the last six years,
it went from around ninety percent of two year olds
being immunized down to under eighty percent. That has had
the single biggest improvement in the last twelve months of
any of the health targets, going from seventy six point
five percent to eighty two percent. Further work to do,

(04:21):
and there's a lot of emphasis across a range of
whether it's providers or primary care to keep that improvement going.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
All right, appreciate your time, s I mean Brown, the
health minister, whether it's this morning. The other numbers out
from our health department or not the health department, but
the health sector this morning is Southern Cross. Twenty four
insurance companies in this country. There are actually eighty four
licensed insurers, but they coaless under twenty four different names,
so there's a lot of insurers in this country. The
biggest one is Southern Cross. Southern Cross alone handed out

(04:50):
three point eight million claims or paid out three point
eight million claims in the last year, which is up
sixteen percent. It paid out one point seven billion dollars
got nine hundred and fifty one thousand, eight hundred and
eight members, which is down three thousand, four hundred ninety three.
So the good news about that, although insurance is getting
more expensive and we've had a cost of living crisis,
there are still most of us, in some way, shape

(05:10):
or form, are medically insured. Business returned ninety four cents
in claims for every dollar paid in premiums. The ratio
rises the longer you've been a member. It's they're under
this two and a half thousand providers nationally. Here's my
question for you, and I thought about Yes, I had
a family member with a small procedure yesterday and it
was that classic example where the insurance cover didn't quite

(05:30):
cover the actual cost of the operation. So, in other words,
it was a couple of thousand dollars insurance that paid
fifteen hundred dollars. You pay five hundred dollars different something
like that. Do the people who perform the operations take
the money from the company and go, oh, I see
you're paying fifteen hundred dollars? Are you? So we'll make it?
What will we make our procedure? I know we'll make it.
Eighteen hundred and fifty or do they say it's eighteen

(05:53):
hundred and fifty and then Southern Cross come along ago,
we're only paying fifteen hundred. How does that work? Another
question for you, just how long can this go on for?
When they're paying out One single company is paying out
three point eight million claims, which is up sixteen percent.
If things are going up sixteen percent a year, how
long before there are so many millions of claims There
are many more millions than there are actually the population.

(06:16):
In other words, every single person in this country is
claiming on medical insurance every single year, and how long
can that remain affordable?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast. Listen live to
news talks.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio