Service improvements despite record demand

ACT emergency departments treated more people on time during the September quarter 2009 despite experiencing their busiest ever quarter, ACT Health Minister, Katy Gallagher MLA, said today.

The Minister was responding to the release of the ACT Public Health Services Quarterly Performance Report September 2009 which showed there was a nine percent increase in presentations to emergency departments during the quarter, compared to the same period last year.

“The first quarter of 2009-10 has been particularly challenging with our emergency departments reporting the highest levels of activity on record during July and August, while at the same time our health system was managing the swine flu pandemic,” Ms Gallagher said.

“But despite these pressures, our public hospitals reported marked improvements in several areas, particularly in emergency department waiting times for the less urgent categories and radiotherapy waiting times,” she said.

“Now that the ACT’s third linear accelerator is operating at full capacity, waiting times for radiotherapy services have improved dramatically, with 96 per cent of clients receiving care within standard timeframes, up from 78 per cent during the same period last year.

“Our emergency departments experienced an 11 per cent increase in category one and two presentations, emergency surgery increased by 3 per cent as a proportion of total surgery and the Canberra Hospital reported the highest ever level of Intensive Care Unit bed days on record, up 17 per cent. This gives a sense of the growth in demand for health services.”

The report shows that emergency department waiting times for the most urgent categories (one and two) as well as the least urgent patients (category five) continue to meet or exceed national targets. Although waiting times for category three and four patients remain below target, they have improved significantly (up 13 per cent to 58 per cent for category three and up 11 per cent to 52 per cent for category four).

Ms Gallagher said ACT Health was committed to continuing the improvements in treatment times and will this year implement several initiatives including the opening of a 16 bed Surgical Assessment and Planning Unit and Australia’s first Walk-in Centre.

“The Government’s continued investment in additional bed capacity is working, with bed occupancy rates reducing from 91 per cent to 88 per cent for the September quarter. An additional 24 beds will come on line this year, that’s on top of the 205 already added since this Government came to office,” Ms Gallagher said.

“Elective surgery throughput was down 10 per cent during the first three months of 2009-10 as part of a planned reduction to ensure our hospitals had the capacity to effectively manage swine flu and to manage the increased demand for respiratory medicine services. However, the ACT remains on track to meet its annual target.”

Other achievements include:

• the number of people waiting for surgery for longer than a year was 606 at the end of September 2009 – a 42% decrease on three years ago;
• 97 per cent of category one patients had their surgery on time; and
• child immunisation rates remain above the national target.

“The report demonstrates our commitment to providing the necessary resources to meet increasing demand for services and in 2010 the public will begin to see more evidence of our $1 billion investment in public health infrastructure as the first of our plans begins to be turned into steel and concrete,” Ms Gallagher said.

“These new buildings and services will progressively come on line over the next decade, ensuring we are able to respond to the health needs of our community well into the future.”

23 December 2009