Watch live: Christopher Luxon announces health targets to cap off 100-day plan

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Shane Reti are announcing “five major health targets” to cap off the government’s 100-day plan.

The pair are speaking at Whangārei Hospital after a visit to the radiation oncology facility there.

The targets are:

• Cancer treatment: 90 percent of patients to receive cancer management within 31 days of the decision to treat
• Child immunisation rates: 95 percent of children to be fully immunised at 24 months of age
• ED stay times: 95 percent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an ED within six hours
• First specialist assessment wait times: 95 percent of patients to wait less than four months
• Treatment wait times: 95 per cent of patients to wait less than four months for elective treatment

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora would be directed to report quarterly on each target, with the regime coming into effect on 1 July – so the first results will reflect the three months to September.

Dr Reti said child immunisation rates currently were at a disappointing 83 percent, well behind the UK, Australia and Canada – and below New Zealand’s 93 percent of 10 years ago – while wait times for first specialist assessments were just 66 percent of people seen within four months.

He said having effective targets and reporting them publicly would help identify problems and take action on them.

“Health workforce will be key to achieving these targets. We know how committed the health workforce is and how hard they are working, which is why building our workforce remains a priority.”

The targets represented a “vigorous new direction in health” after the health system “went backwards under the previous government and its failure to drive targets,” he said.

“We are unapologetically an outcomes-driven government. In health, that means setting targets which will deliver better results for all New Zealanders.”

The 100-day plan , unveiled in November, broadly specified two of the targets would include “wait times”, and “cancer treatment”, but Friday’s announcement should outline the other three – and detail what specifically is being aimed for.

Luxon confirmed months ago the deadline for the plan was to be 8 March, and has been confident the government had achieved all 49 actions – though questions could be raised about some of these.

“We told you what we’re gonna do, we’ve done it, and now we’re telling you what we’ve done,” Luxon said of the plan on Thursday, as he unveiled the government’s fast-track legislation alongside three other ministers.