At your next GP or hospital appointment be sure to read the District Health Board’s (DHB) Quality Report illustrating health service improvements in the district.
“Getting Better: Improvements to Healthcare in Nelson Marlborough” is a 10 page annual report about the quality of the services provided within Nelson Marlborough DHB, based on consumer experience and health outcomes.
Chief Executive, Chris Fleming said, “It is important to acknowledge the advancements in quality and safety in our health system. The areas covered in this report relate to clinical, cultural and social improvements in health services.
“We are always trying to find better and more innovative ways of working and this report looks at some of the ways we have attempted to do this.
““Getting Better” is not a full report on every quality initiative at NMDHB, but a selection of projects that show what we are doing to improve our performance as measured by the National Health targets.”
He said the Health Quality & Safety Commission (HQ&SC) strongly recommended DHBs produce these annual accounts however they are not yet mandatory.
“As the target audience for “Getting Better” is our local community we took advice from consumer advisors, regarding content and layout. The language used is clear and simple to understand, and we avoided complicated graphs and tables.
“We were also mindful of cost and kept this to a 10 page booklet,” said Mr Fleming.
Don and Bev Gay the consumer advisors for the report said people most interested in the report would be those who are currently involved in using health services or those who are about to be involved.
Mrs Gay said it was an important opportunity to let the public know that there are positive things happening in health and that there is a move to improve services as they affect patients.
Mr Gay said they wanted something that had simple wording and was easily understood by a wide range of people.
The couple and their family have experienced a wide range of contacts with a number of different services in the health system. These range from disability services, to eye care to GPs and surgery.
“As a result of that contact we felt that we were able to achieve a greater level of understanding and a more positive result,” said Mrs Gay.
Copies of “Getting Better” are being distributed to local GP offices.
“Getting Better” is also available in reception areas at both Nelson and Wairau hospitals.
For additional copies of “Getting Better” go to www.nmdhb.govt.nz/ to download the publication.
