More progress with health targets

The latest health targets data is out, for the Oct – Dec 25 quarter. Let’s look at what has happened over the last 10 years for each of them, remembering that Labour basically dropped all the previous targets when they came into office.

The Key/English Government saw those needing cancer treatment and starting within 31 days going from 84% to 90%. From 2021 to early 2024 under Ardern and Hipkins it dropped to 83% and now is at 87%. The target is 87% by June 26 and 90% by 2030 so well on track.

This one is heart breaking. We had immunisation rates at over 90% and they dropped to around 75% under Labour. They are now to 83% with the target of 87% by June 26 and 95% by 2030.

Over 90% of ED patients were being dealt with within six hours under Key and English. The target was scrapped and it dropped to under 85%. It recovered slightly and dropped during the pandemic. However even after the pandemic it kept plummeting under Ardern and Hipkins to under 70%. It has increased by around 6% to 74% and the target by June 26 is 77% and 95% by 2030.

Under Key and English almost 100% of people needing to see a specialist saw one within four months. It dropped to 90% under Ardern. The pandemic saw it drop to 75% and then recover to 90%. But the next two years of Ardern and Hipkins saw it drop to under 65%. 2025 has seen it increase from 58% to 62% but some way off the target of 65% by June 26 and 95% by 2030.

Again almost 100% of patients needing elective treatment were getting hot under Key and English. It fell under Ardern to under 90%. The pandemic saw it fall to under 70% and then recover to 85%. But then Ardern and Hipkins saw it drop to 55%. It is now at around 65% and the target by June 26 is 70% and by 2030 95%.

There are three conclusions we can draw from this:

• Under Key and English the health system was performing very well against health targets.
• Under Ardern and Hipkins, every metric declined massively. While Covid-19 obviously was a partial factor in 2020 and 2021, the data shows that decline often continued under Ardern and Hipkins. Also decline started before Covid-19 also.
• Under Luxon there has been improvement in all the health targets in the last year (it takes time to turn things around). For three of the targets the improvements are significant and basically on target, while for two the improvement is significantly less than targeted (but still improving)

I will update these with the March 26 data, which I expect in June and finally with the June 26 dats in September.

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