14 October 2009

Response to AMA Public Hospital Report Card

NSW Minister for Health, Carmel Tebbutt has responded to the findings of a report on the public hospital system released by the Australian Medical Association today.

“The NSW Government is one of the top spenders on public hospitals in the country,” Ms Tebbutt said.

“The data in the report reflects the situation as of 2008. Since then we have had the Garling Report and the Government’s response Caring Together: The Health Action Plan for NSW.

“Importantly, the NSW Health budget has increased from $13.2 billion in 2007/08, to $15.1 billion in the 2009/10 budget to meet the increased demand for health care services from a growing and ageing population,” she added.

The NSW Government has implemented a number of successful strategies to reduce elective surgery waiting times, including:
• Surgery Access Line – providing waiting time advice to people waiting for surgery and GPs; and
• Clinical services redesign program – including improved emergency access, surgery, mental health and cardiology services.

Minister Tebbutt said these initiatives resulted in NSW performing above the Commonwealth target for additional planned surgery in the 2008 calendar year – with 12,000 additional surgeries undertaken, compared to the target of 8743.

“NSW Health continues to make improvements in its elective surgery waiting times. As at June 2009, 84% of category 2 elective surgery patients were seen within 90 days. This compares to 75% in 2007/08 as mentioned in the AMA report.

Ms Tebbutt refuted claims that Emergency Department performance in NSW is declining, with EDs operating well despite increased pressure.

“In the period April to June 2009, 24,000 more people attended an Emergency Department, compared to the same period the year before.

“Despite this, we are at or closer to benchmarks in four out of five triage categories and continuing to make improvements.

“The AMA figure on Triage 3 waiting time for treatment is incorrect, with the actual performance in 2007/08 equalling that of the previous year. This figure has improved following the H1N1 Pandemic influenza 2009 outbreak to 71%,” she added.

Minister Tebbutt also said the latest figure on public hospital bed numbers was 2.9 beds per 1000 people – which rates NSW higher than the national average of 2.7 beds per 1000 people for public acute hospitals.

"The NSW Government is making a concerted effort to rebuild our bed base and improve access to hospital care for patients in need – in the 2009/10 budget we invested $33.1 million for 105 new hospital beds.

"These additional beds allow for more elective surgery, faster emergency care and increased treatment in the home.

"As documented in the Government’s Caring Together: The Health Action Plan for NSW, even better models of care and enhanced services are being implemented, including the expansion of Hospital in the Home services in the community.

"We are recruiting 30 clinical initiative nurses for emergency departments throughout the state later this year, which will see patient care improved and delivered more efficiently, further reducing waiting times for patients in our Emergency Departments.

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au