Good progress for Elective Services

The National Health Board's Electives Team has a focus on supporting District Health Boards to achieve the government's elective surgery health target - Improved Access to Elective Surgery, and good progress is being made.

The National Health Board's Electives Manager, Clare Perry, says there is a direct relationship between greater access to elective health care and continued quality of life as people get older.

"Elective services are important for improving peoples' independence and ability to participate in daily activities. In the past, the growth in elective surgical discharges did not keep up with population growth, so there had to be a refocus", says Clare

More information on the health target is available here: Improved Access to Elective Surgery.

She says other aspects of the electives programme are focused on the principles underlying the elective services system, that of clarity, timeliness and fairness.

"That means that patients receive information about assessment and treatment options and whether they will be available to them. We want to ensure that patients are managed in a timely manner, including being advised whether they will receive access to assessment or treatment, and if assessment or treatment is offered to them, that they receive it within the next six months. Improving timely access to elective care is a key focus for us in the upcoming year."

Ms Perry says the National Health Board is also working with clinicians to ensure they have the tools and resources to make decisions about which patients should receive treatment - based on level of need and ability to benefit - and then treat them in priority order.

The National Cardiac Surgery Update showcases a number of improvements made in cardiac surgery.

'We're also supporting the development and sharing of ideas and initiatives to improve service delivery, productivity, patient outcomes and cost effectiveness.

A key part of this is the Elective Services Workforce Productivity Programme, which is funding a range of projects. We have highlighted a couple of projects underway in this newsletter and have just finalised our documentation for the 2011/12 request for proposals. More information on the Elective Services Workforce Productivity Programme RFP is available from tony_crane@moh.govt.nz.

Read the Health Improvement & Innovation Resource Centre (HIIRC) newsletter with the original article.