Emergency Departments seeing patients faster

The Government is making good progress in fixing never-ending delays In the country's emergency departments, Health Minister Tony Ryall has told a health conference in Taupo.

Emergency Departments in public hospitals are delivering on their shorter stays in EDs health target and playing a major role in improving frontline services.

Health Minister Tony Ryall told the third annual New Zealand Emergency Departments Conference that in the last year, the number of patients admitted, discharged or transferred from an Emergency Department within six hours jumped from below 80 per cent to 87 per cent.

"When I drop into EDs around the country I can see they are taking this target seriously and seeing patients much faster."

"That improvement is despite increasing demand for ED services, and another busy winter," Mr Ryall said.

"A significant feature of this target, compared to examples of Emergency Department length of stay targets in other parts of the world, is NZ's target was designed by local ED staff - it is driven by ED clinicians themselves and their concerns for good quality clinical care," the Health Minister said.

"We are putting $512 million extra into health this year to help grow and protect the public health service."

"And we are fixing frontline services by paying particular attention to what matters to patients, and by giving doctors and nurses more say. The Government is ensuring that the public health service is well placed to address the significant challenges of the future," said Mr Ryall.