# Health Quality & Safety Commission — Annual Report 2024/25

Document ID: doc-0015  
Publisher: Health Quality & Safety Commission Te Tāhū Hauora  
Catalogue date: 2025-11  
Physical PDF pages: 96  
Original capture/access label: June 2026  
Source and content reviewed: 9 October 2026

Original local PDF: [2025 - HQSC - Annual Report.pdf](/pdfs/2025%20-%20HQSC%20-%20Annual%20Report.pdf)

Primary publisher source: [Official PDF](https://www.hqsc.govt.nz/assets/Core-pages/About-us/Annual-reports/Annual-Report-2024-25.pdf?hash=8f61fbfd213c7ff427bcb7a2d1e8a66e6c54d588)

## What the document contributes

The Commission’s ninety-six-page annual report, published November 2025, reviews national quality and safety work in 2024/25. Older-person relevance includes the aged residential care Deterioration Early Warning System feasibility study, home-support experience feedback and modelled reductions in serious hospital falls harm. It also covers consumer participation, clinical governance, national quality alerts, performance and finances. Its service achievements, feasibility findings and estimated healthy-life-year benefits have different evidence bases; they do not demonstrate universal implementation or individual clinical outcomes.

## Substantive findings

- The publication states Published November 2025 and reports on 2024/25. It covers the Commission’s whole health-sector programme, not just aged residential care.
- More than 200,000 people provided feedback through hospital and primary-care patient experience surveys. A new home and community support survey offered providers information for improvement; these survey groups are not all older people.
- The aged residential care Deterioration Early Warning System comprises three tools co-designed with the sector to help staff recognise and respond to acute deterioration.
- A DEWS feasibility study found strong participant endorsement and supported wider implementation, with further digital integration and e-learning recommended. Sector implementation was a 2025/26 deliverable in this report, not proof of completed nationwide adoption.
- As at March 2025, the report estimates 477 disability-adjusted life-years avoided from reduced hospital falls with fractured neck of femur. This means estimated healthy life-years, not 477 people, falls or fractures prevented.
- Avoided-harm estimates compare actual major harms against a theoretical rate based on July 2010–July 2012 admissions. Most rates are not separately risk-adjusted, recent-quarter data can change, and the estimates exclude less serious harms.
- Quality Alerts, a clinical governance framework and consumer participation work are described as routes for identifying risk and improving services. Annual activity measures and modelled benefits are different from controlled evidence attributing every improvement to the Commission.

## Identity, dates and provenance

The local publication page explicitly says Published November 2025. The report covers 2024/25 and has 96 physical pages. Publication month, reporting year, the March 2025 cut-off used for some outcomes, and the July 2025 generation date for avoided-harm estimates are separate dates.

The original PDF and June 2026 capture label are preserved. The October 2026 review date records source verification and catalogue enrichment; it is not a replacement publication or capture date. This companion brief is an editorial summary, not a substitute publisher document.

## Where to check the original

Physical page 2: publication month. Page 9: consumer surveys and quality resources. Page 20: DEWS feasibility and planned implementation. Page 36: disability-adjusted life-years avoided, including 477 for falls with fractured neck of femur as at March 2025. Page 42: avoided-harm estimation and data limitations.

## Evidence limits and use

DEWS participant endorsement and feasibility do not establish adoption by every facility or prove an effect on clinical outcomes. The 477 figure measures modelled healthy life-years, not people or falls. The avoided-harm calculation applies a July 2010–July 2012 baseline harm rate to later admissions and compares theoretical with observed major harms. Most rates are not separately risk-adjusted; recent hospital-event data can change and less serious harms are excluded. The Commission considers these estimates conservative, but that judgement does not remove the modelling assumptions or establish exclusive causal attribution.

## Publisher references

- [Matching official PDF](https://www.hqsc.govt.nz/assets/Core-pages/About-us/Annual-reports/Annual-Report-2024-25.pdf?hash=8f61fbfd213c7ff427bcb7a2d1e8a66e6c54d588)
- [Commission corporate publications and annual report listing](https://www.hqsc.govt.nz/about-us/corporate-publications/)