Kia Ora taatou,
I’m pleased to note that even in the midst of winter pressures, there are some positive trends emerging in our services here at Counties Manukau.
We are making progress on reducing the excessively long waiting times for both first specialist assessment and treatment
This progress is good news for our community and a morale booster for our staff.
For surgery, here in the Northern region, we are seeing very significant progress in treating patients who have been waiting more than a year whilst at the same time delivering all urgent and emergency surgery.
The reasons? We have put huge efforts into maximising the use of our resources, and improving how we handle our waiting lists.
This means, that if you’ve been waiting to be seen by a service or specialist, you might be hearing from us sooner than was the case only some months ago.
My staff and I have been on the radio in the last couple of weeks, talking about keeping well this winter.
Our key messages remain the same; get your immunisations up to date, make sure your home is healthy and warm, and make good choices about where to go for winter care.
I wish you a safe and healthy winter.
Kia pai too ra.
Dr Andrew Connolly
Chief Medical Officer
Counties Manukau