Public hospitals analysis against key indicators

Queensland public hospitals performed well against a range of different clinical indicators during 2006-07, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said today.

Mr Robertson released the second annual Queensland Public Hospitals Performance Report (2006-07) which analyses how 40 hospitals performed in 29 key areas.

“This document is part of the State Government’s commitment to openly report to the public what is happening in our public hospitals,” Mr Robertson said.

“There has been robust national discussion this past week about data collecting and performance reporting by Commonwealth and States and Territories.

“The fact is the Queensland Government is now the most open and transparent state in Australia regarding the public health system.

“Through this annual report and our quarterly reports which measures activity across the board the public can judge for themselves how our hospitals are performing.

“Queenslanders can be kept fully informed about our public health system in a sensible, responsible way.

“What must be done now is for the Commonwealth to follow our lead and report on their own performance in the health system.

“At the moment most reporting only focuses on public hospitals, but it should cover the whole spectrum of health care of which the Commonwealth has key responsibilities.”

Mr Robertson said the report is also used by hospitals to identify areas where they are doing well and where they need to do better.

“They are analysed against their peer hospitals of similar size and against the State average,” he said.

“In overall terms, hospitals were performing well against 29 surgical, medical, gynaecological/obstetric and mental health categories.

“Our hospitals are performing as good as, if not better, than hospitals throughout Australia.

“However, this report highlights areas where individual hospitals need to do better in a particular category.

“In every case, where a hospital recorded an unfavourable result, it was investigated, and where necessary a management plan was put into place to improve performance in that category.

“An explanation for every unfavourable results has also been included in the report.”

Mr Robertson said some indicators did not apply to certain hospitals simply because they did not deliver that particular service.

“For example, Redland Hospital could not be marked against the hip replacement categories in the surgical section because it does not perform hip replacements,” he said.

The report also showed in 2006-07:

• Queensland Health’s total bed capacity increased from by 280, from 9,762 in 2005-06 to 10,042 in 2006-07;

• 87% of new mothers were satisfied with their care in hospital in a maternity services survey;

• Sick leave (staff morale indicator) as a percentage of leave hours to ordinary hours worked dropped from 5.24% in 2005-06 to 5.21% in 2006-07; and

• 17 selected Brisbane and regional hospitals saved a total 439,000 kilo-litres of water, 100,000 gigajoules of gas, 44.7 million kilowatts of electricity and 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The report can be found on www.health.qld.gov.au

MEDIA: Joshua Cooney 3234 1185