Rheumatic fever rates down 45%

Jonathan Coleman reports:

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says new figures show there has been a significant drop in national rheumatic fever rates.

98 people were hospitalised for the first time with rheumatic fever in 2015, compared with 177 hospitalisations in 2012 – that’s a 45 per cent reduction.

Rates for Māori have more than halved since 2012 – down 54 per cent. There has also been a drop of 27 per cent for Pacific people. More than half the national reduction was in Northland and Counties Manukau DHBs.

This is good to see. The focus on health should be on outcomes (such as this) now on how much money you spend (asyou could triple health funding and still have unmet demands).

The BPS target is for a two thirds reduction by 2016/17.  The interim target for 2014/15 was a 40% reduction so this 45% reduction suggests the overall target is on track.

This graph shows the significant progress being made. Rheumatic fever is often called a disease of poverty. If so, the graph speaks for itself.

The rheumatic fever rate went from 2.9 to 3.8 under Labour and has now dropped to 2.1.