Category: Ministry of Health

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

Summary

The quantitative measures presented in this report are designed to provide a broad view of the current state of system performance against our four objectives, rather than to reflect progress on any individual action in Whakamaua. Achieving these objectives will make a significant contribution to realising the plan’s high-level outcomes for Māori health and wellbeing.

It will take time for the large system changes needed to occur to meet our four objectives, so the measures in this report do not yet reflect the system changes we are expecting as a result of the actions in Whakamaua. These measures were selected to provide our initial baseline because they are relevant, technically reliable, and because the data is already available in the health and disability system. This means we will be able to report on these measures regularly over the period of the plan, so changes can be measured over time and trends can be shown.

Objectives and measures

• Accelerate and spread the delivery of kaupapa Māori and whānau-centred services. 
  • 1.1 Funding received by kaupapa Māori health and disability service providers 
  • 1.2 Geographical coverage and utilisation of rongoā Māori services 
  • 1.3 The percentage of Māori reporting unmet need for primary health care 
• Shift cultural and social norms.
  • 2.1 Experience of health services as measured by the primary health care and adult inpatient patient experience surveys
  • 2.2 Missed appointments for Māori at outpatient services (first specialist appointments) at DHBs
  • 2.3 Percentage of Māori in the regulated workforce compared with the percentage of Māori in the population.
• Reduce health inequities and health loss for Māori.
  • 3.1 Rates of ambulatory sensitive hospitalisations (ASH) for Māori aged 0–4-years
  • 3.2 Māori young people able to access specialist mental health or addiction services in a timely manner (within three weeks from referral) 
  • 3.3 Rate of diabetes complications (ie limb amputations and renal failure).
• Strengthen system accountability settings
  • 4.1 Measures of the health of Māori/Crown partnerships
  • 4.2 Number of kaupapa Māori research proposals receiving ethics approval that focus on Māori health and disability
  • 4.3 Number of Māori in leadership and governance roles across the Ministry, DHBs and health sector Crown entities
  • 4.4 Standardised acute bed days per capita for Māori.

Changes in measures

The 2023 publication of the Whakamaua insights are disaggregated by Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards (IMPB) to show the regional distribution of health outcomes instead of Districts as previously published. This is the first-time health statistics have been published by IMPB, which also required the use of the Health Service Utilisation population as the denominator due to the new boundary definitions. 

A review of the measure of diabetes complications resulted in this measure changing from primary-diagnosis diabetes related hospitalisations only to primary and secondary-diagnosis diabetes related hospitalisations. The dashboard provides adjusted insights for previous years to enable consistent comparisons over time.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

This report shows information on funding to Māori health providers by the Ministry of Health (the Ministry) and District Health Boards (DHBs) for the period 2017/18 to 2021/22. This report follows on from our reports in 2017, 2021 and 2022 on the same topic and is part of our monitoring of Whakamaua: Māori Health Action Plan 2020-2053.

Highlights include:

• funding to Māori health providers by the Ministry of Health and District Health Boards was $456.6 million in 2021/22, an increase of $149.6 million (or 48.7%) since 2017/18 (see Table 1)
   
• although funding to Māori health providers is increasing, it remains a small part of Vote Health, remaining near 2 percent between 2017/18 and 2021/22
   
• the Ministry has begun measuring Other types of funding not included in the figures above. These are: Māori Provider Development Scheme, Māori primary health organisations, Māori general practices, for Hauora Māori Scholarships, and payments for the delivery of COVID-19 services. These payments increased by $277.3 million between 2017/18 and 2021/22, or 331.8 percent. This is higher than the increase in Vote Health during the same time (30.4%)

Measuring Other types of funding is subject to large fluctuations particularly funding to Māori PHOs. The fluctuations are due to new PHOs being created, closures and amalgamation of PHOs; and general practices moving between PHOs. Because of this, Table 1 may be a more consistent way to measure changes in funding to Māori health providers.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

This report provides information about disabled people who access a range of disability support services funded by the Ministry of Health. The information in this report relates to people who accessed disability support services in the financial year from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 inclusive (2019/20). The report also presents five-year trends back to 2015/16, where applicable.

The disability support service types covered in this report include:

• Home and Community Support (HCSS)
• Carer Support (CS)
• Community Residential Support
• Choice in Community Living (CiCL)
• Younger people in aged residential care (YPD)
• Supported Living
• Respite
• Behaviour Support Services (BSS)
• Day services
• Services under the High and Complex Framework
• Individualised Funding (IF)
• Enhanced Individualised Funding (EIF)
• Funded Family Care (FFC)
• Community rehabilitation
• Enabling Good Lives (EGL)
• Equipment and Modification Services (EMS)
• Hearing services
• Vision services
• Assessment, Treatment & Rehabilitation (AT&R)

This report also breaks down the data by disability type, including physical, intellectual, autism, neurological and sensory disabilities.

Please note Disability Support Services were delivered by the Ministry of Health until 30 June 2022. From 1 July 2022, these services are delivered by Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People. For queries relating to this report, please contact [email protected].

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

The 2021 Health and Independence Report provides an overview of the state of public health in Aotearoa New Zealand for the 2021 calendar year. To do this it comprises a range of up-to-date information about the population, the COVID-19 pandemic, and an extensive range of health measures. The data presented comes from a range of sources, including the New Zealand Health Survey and the National Collections. The report complements the Ministry’s Annual Report, which includes detailed information about the strategic direction of the health and disability system and measures of its performance and impact.

The Report highlights that health equity continues to be a challenge. Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people, and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups generally experience worse health outcomes than other New Zealanders.

The 2021 report is divided into three sections:

• People of Aotearoa – population overview and population health measures, such as life expectancy, health expectancy, morbidity and mortality, and factors contributing to health loss.
• Impacts of COVID-19 – an overview of the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa, including the pandemic response, vaccination programme, testing and case demographics for the 2021 calendar year.
• Health Measures – a wide range of health measures for 2021, including maternity, primary care, barriers to heath care, child oral health, immunisation, the RSV outbreak, cancer, long term conditions and hospitalisation rates.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

The Primary Health Organisation (PHO) enrolment of children in contact with the care and protection system presents an overview of the PHO enrolment status of children in New Zealand in 2021. This is a joint report between Oranga Tamariki and Manatū Hauora.

The report presents data on the overall PHO enrolment status of children grouped into cohorts based on their level of contact with Oranga Tamariki. We found that children in care have similar enrolment rates to children with no care and protection history (94% for children in care and 95% for children with no care and protection contact). It describes those groups further by:

• Māori indicator
• gender
• age.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

In New Zealand as in many other countries radium has been used for various reasons such as its incorporation into luminous paint for watch dials and hands, alongside its implementation into medicines and therapeutic applications.

This information sheet provides an overview of radium in New Zealand, explains what radium is, its historic uses, associated health risks, and offers practical advice on identifying, storing, and handling radium devices safely.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

Summary

This report provides an overview of the abortion services work of Manatū Hauora between October 2022 and September 2023.

The abortion statistics covering the 2022 calendar year provide additional insight into abortion services across Aotearoa. Areas of focus include meeting Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and improving equity and access.

Key achievements include increased accessibility through the growth of the abortion workforce and number of facilities providing local in-person abortion services. Endorsement of early medical abortion (EMA) training for midwives, and access to EMA through a national telehealth service – DECIDE, have also facilitated this increase in accessible service provision.

The implementation of 11 Safe Areas, accounting for about one-third of all current abortion service providers, have been established at the time of publication to protect the safety, wellbeing, privacy, and dignity of people who are accessing, or providing, abortion services.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

The 2022/23 Manatū Hauora | Ministry of Health Annual Report sets out who we are and what we do, how we manage our business, our progress towards our 2022-26 strategic intentions. The annual report also includes our financial statements and statement of service performance as specified in Vote Health – Main Estimates of Appropriation 2022/23 and (where updated) in Vote Health – Supplementary Estimates of Appropriation 2022/23 as required under the Public Finance Act 1989. 

The Ministry has achieved a lot in the past 12 months since the reform of our health system began with the new health entities stood up including the creation of the Public Health Agency within Manatū Hauora – on 1 July 2022. The reforms support a more equitable, accessible, cohesive and people centred system that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders. 

Over the last 12 months, we have sharpened our focus on our key role as kaitiaki | chief steward of our reformed health system and taken a closer look at how we operate, so we are well set up to deliver on our purpose and role. 

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

The National Poliomyelitis Response Framework provides a toolkit for how Aotearoa would respond to various scenarios in which there was detection of polio, including a polio outbreak, in New Zealand. 

The framework was a response to the increase in polio activity in areas of the world that have previously seen polio eradicated, partly because of global decline in immunisation rates. Te Pou Hauora Tūmatanui – the Public Health Agency, within Manatū Hauora, Te Whatu Ora – the National Public Health Service, Te Aka Whai Ora, ESR and Whaikaha were all involved in its development. 

Aotearoa New Zealand continues to be polio-free and remains committed to preventing polio circulating in Aotearoa. 

The framework considers four scenarios: 

• detection of poliovirus through wastewater surveillance 
• detection of poliovirus in an acute flaccid paralysis case, which is essentially rapid weakening of a person’s muscles 
• identification of a contact of known polio case overseas 
• exposure to poliovirus in a lab facility. 

Options for responding to an outbreak or heightened risk include ramping up national and locally targeted immunisation campaigns, particularly in areas of low coverage or high exposure and increasing testing and subsequent case and contact management.  

There are also options for enhancing surveillance in response to an outbreak or heightened risk, including further targeted wastewater testing, stool sampling for all people hospitalised with neurological illnesses, and stool sampling healthy children in communities where there is concern about potential transmission. 

The framework is one of several measures developed to prepare for a polio outbreak. Others include poliovirus wastewater testing and surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis cases. Te Whatu Ora also provides detailed advice on management of polio to clinicians and health providers via the Communicable Disease Control Manual. 

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

This publication outlines progress on research commissioned by the Ministry of Health to describe how changes in tobacco control policies may affect the importing and selling of illicit tobacco products, and how consumers are interacting with the illicit market in response.