Health board gets seal of approval

Meeting its health targets and managing its finances carefully has seen the Whanganui District Health Board receive an upgrade in monitoring levels.

The National Health Board, which oversees all district health boards, has recently upgraded the WDHB from "intensive monitoring" to "performance watch".

There are three levels of monitoring - standard, performance watch and intensive.

WDHB chairwoman Kate Joblin said each DHB was graded according to the level of monitoring that the NHB deemed necessary.

Mrs Joblin said the WDHB had been at intensive monitoring for a number of years, and also used to have the added monitoring of Crown Monitors.

"This was largely because of our financial situation, although not entirely."

Mrs Joblin said the upgrade was recognition of the good work done at the DHB, led by chief executive Julie Patterson.

"Our results have been improving steadily on a number of fronts - being a top performer in meeting the Ministerial Health Targets and carefully managing our health dollars."

Mrs Joblin said the upgrade would mean less scrutiny of the WDHB by the NHB, although both organisations would continue to work closely.