Waikato District Health Board has stepped up its game of meeting health targets but is faltering on the other side. The board is not getting patients through Waikato Hospital's emergency department on time.

Health Ministry’s advertising campaign statistics, which are due out tomorrow, are expected to show the DHB making significant improvements in meeting expected health targets, including a 12 percent rise in the number of patients put through the emergency department of the hospital, the biggest in the region, in under six hours.

But the numbers still fall below ministry guidelines, which require “95 per cent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an emergency department within six hours”.

Waikato Hospital, processing 10,280 out of 13,535 patients within the required time frame, reached 76 percent of the target.

The results were made public at yesterday's Health Waikato Advisory Committee meeting.

Chief operating officer Jan Adams was of the view that the latest figures showed significant improvements. "Our emergency departments are on track to meet the 95 per cent threshold by June 2010", she said.

Mrs. Adams added, “The DHB had achieved targets on waiting times for treating cancer patients”.