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February | Huitānguru 2026
In this edition of the Health Quality & Safety Commission Te Tāhū Hauora newsletter:
- DEWS implementation
- Monitoring and reducing surgical mortality
- Clinical governance framework
- Updated sepsis pathways for pre-hospital use
- Summer internships
- Latest publications
- Consumer opportunities - expressions of interest
- Coming up - consumer webinar, website improvements
DEWS implementation
About 120 aged residential care facilities across New Zealand will begin using the new Deterioration Early Warning System (DEWS) this year.
DEWS is a standardised, evidence-based system for recognising and responding quickly to acute deterioration in older people living in aged care. It supports safer care across the aged care sector and strengthens system-wide quality improvement by enabling data collection, monitoring, and learning.
This system was co-designed with the aged residential care sector, and is world-leading and unique to New Zealand.
We will continue to provide support to providers who choose to implement DEWS over the next two to three years.
Monitoring and reducing surgical mortality
Although New Zealand’s surgical mortality rates are similar to those of comparable countries, there is still room for improvement.
The Commission and Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora are adopting a new approach to reduce avoidable deaths from surgery.
Until now, the Commission has reviewed perioperative deaths at arm’s length from the organisations that performed the surgeries.
Under the new approach, a Perioperative Mortality Review Group has been set up with members from both Health NZ and the Commission. It will examine variations in death rates up to 30 days following surgery and initiate actions to improve safety across all publicly provided and publicly funded surgeries in New Zealand.
This initiative strengthens the connection between the Commission’s monitoring and Health NZ’s ability to act on the insights it provides, while preserving the Commission’s role as an independent monitor of surgical mortality.
Clinical governance framework
Our updated guidance on clinical governance is being applied by organisations within the health sector here and attracting overseas interest.
Clinical governance was created to provide accountability for quality of care and to improve patient experience and outcomes. ‘Collaborating for quality: A framework for clinical governance’, released in November 2024, contains updated views on system safety, quality and equity to achieve a learning and responsive system for all populations that help teams improve care and reduce harm.
Collaborative Aotearoa has included a section on the framework in their new toolkit for clinical consultants. The framework has also sparked interest overseas, with Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) keen to learn from our approach.
Updated sepsis pathways for pre-hospital use
New sepsis pathways are now available to support early recognition and treatment of sepsis in the community.
The pathways cover adult and young people, paediatric, and maternal patients.
They were updated by the Commission in partnership with Sepsis Trust NZ, HealthPathways and the national multidisciplinary Sepsis Technical Advisory Group.
About 80% of sepsis cases start in the community, with patients often first presenting to general practice, urgent care services, or being referred to ambulance care.
Improved alignment between primary care and pre-hospital services aims to reduce delays, strengthen communication, and support continuity of care once patients transition to hospital.
A separate package of resources for use in hospitals is available on our website.
Summer internships
Our internship programme plays an important role in developing emerging talent in the data intelligence space, particularly in areas where Māori capacity and capability remain limited.
The programme offers interns valuable hands‑on experience working within the public sector, with a strong focus on ethical data analysis, data sovereignty, and robust governance practices.
This summer we’ve been joined by two students from Victoria University of Wellington.
Monitoring Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy (SUDI)
This report provides a more timely and accessible way of monitoring SUDI rates by presenting preliminary data (suspected SUDI cases) and SUDI cases confirmed by the coroner. This approach helps the health sector respond quickly to emerging issues and target support where it is needed most.
Read ‘Monitoring Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy’
Polypharmacy in people aged 65 and over
The goal of this updated Atlas domain is to identify variation in the dispensing rates of multiple long-term medications to people aged 65 and over.
Opioids
This Atlas domain has been updated with data from 2023 and examines the variation in dispensing of opioids by demographics as well as health district.
Ō Mātou Reo evaluation reports
These evaluation reports share the key insights and learnings from Ō Mātou Reo: Our Voices 2025 to help guide and strengthen future consumer-focused events in the health sector.
The following opportunities are available for consumers to contribute to health system improvement:
- Expression of interest: Take part in research on the role of lived experience partners in mental health
- Expression of interest: Join the New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry
Expression of interest: ‘The path of making things right: Te ara whakatika’ - a national project to improve recovery for people after major trauma, such as brain, chest and spinal cord injuries
Save the date – ‘Code of expectations’ webinar
The Commission is holding a free webinar on 22 April 2026, exploring what the ‘Code of expectations for health entities’ engagement with consumers and whānau’ is, why it matters, and what good practice looks like.
Details and registration information to come.
Improvements to our website
We’re beginning work to improve the structure, navigation and search experience on our website to make it easier for you to find the information you need.
User feedback will be essential in helping us get this right. Over the coming months we’ll be asking people to share their experiences of the site through a link on our homepage, social media posts and email invitations.
If you’d like to be involved you can also register your interest by emailing us, using the subject line "Website user testing", at: communications@hqsc.govt.nz
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