Queensland public hospitals treating more patients than ever before

Queensland public hospitals provided for the first time ever more than 10 million occasions of service to non-admitted patients during 2006-07, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said today.

Mr Robertson told State Parliament Queensland’s public hospitals provided 10,033,545 occasions of service to non-admitted patients at hospitals across the State (See table).

“That’s nearly one million more occasions of service than the 9,165,236 provided during 2005-06 and a 12 percent increase in just two years,” he said.

“The 10 million occasions of service include our emergency departments which provided more than 1.3 million occasions of services; and specialist outpatient clinics which delivered more than 3.5 million.”

Mr Robertson said Queensland public hospitals were also treating record numbers of “admitted” patients.

“During 2006-07, our hospitals provided 817,313 episodes of care to “admitted” patients compared with 763,238 the previous year,” he said.

“And “day-only admitted patients” received 387,927 episodes of care during 2006-07 compared with 368,687 during the previous 12 months.”

Mr Robertson said the record hospital activity showed the State Government was responding to growing demand for hospital services.

“Our hospitals are busier than ever before and treating more patients than ever before,” he said.

“Through our $10 billion Health Action Plan we providing our public hospitals with the staff and resources to meet the challenges of a growing and aging population.

“We’re opening new beds across the state.

“We’re funding new and upgraded emergency departments at the Gold Coast, Robina, Logan, Prince Charles, Redland, Redcliffe, Gympie, Rockhampton, Townsville and Princess Alexandra hospitals.

“Were building new hospitals and redeveloping others across the State.

“And since June 2005, we have recruited 1,073 extra doctors, 3,801 extra nurses and 1,228 extra allied health professionals to provide care for patients in our public hospitals.

“That’s an extra 6,102 clinical staff recruited in just over two years.”

Total non-admitted occasions of service at public hospitals and Mater

Health Service Districts & Mater Public Hospitals	Total non-admitted patient occasions of service
	2004/2005	2005/2006	2006/2007
Cairns and Hinterland	644,573	681,055	757,001
Cape York	180,667	130,470	178,491
Central Queensland	389,581	412,372	469,012
Central West	91,750	82,912	86,645
Fraser Coast	223,681	213,531	238,996
Gold Coast	475,352	500,441	561,566
Mackay	284,935	309,220	350,347
Mater Public Hospitals	416,476	421,821	435,244
Mount Isa	181,298	180,751	194,734
Northside	696,618	708,688	795,989
Princess Alexandra	747,471	789,080	876,126
Royal Brisbane & Women's	1,066,989	1,123,738	1,177,030
Royal Children's	152,418	153,621	206,920
South West	126,948	142,936	134,447
Southside	802,784	825,420	870,781
Sunshine Coast and Cooloola	448,980	458,854	513,141
Toowoomba and Darling Downs	579,406	605,671	639,390
Torres Strait	195,624	141,964	132,847
Townsville	642,448	684,316	748,263
West Moreton South Burnett	379,506	394,757	440,926
Wide Bay	195,321	203,618	225,650
TOTAL	8,922,826	9,165,236	10,033,546

MEDIA:     MATTHEW JUTSUM     3225 2680