Logan Hospital one of Queensland’s busiest

Logan Hospital continues to be one of Queensland’s busiest hospitals, according to the latest Queensland Health Public Hospital Performance Report released today.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the report shows Logan Hospital treated 21,281 people as inpatients or emergencies during the December 2007 quarter – a 5% increase on the 20,270 people treated during the same quarter in 2006.

“Logan’s Emergency Department continues to be one of the busiest in Queensland with 15,664 people attending during the December 2007 quarter,” he said.

“This represents a 4.6% increase on the 14,980 patients who presented during the December 2006 quarter and the emergency department is treating an average 180 people each day.”

Mr Robertson said the report painted a similar picture of increased demand for services for patients who needed to be admitted as in-patients.

“During the December quarter 2007, 8,939 patients were admitted to Logan Hospital -- up 7.9% on the 8,283 patients admitted during the December 2006 quarter.

“More patients were seen by our specialist outpatient clinics, with the hospital providing 29,615 occasions of service during the December quarter 2007.

“This is a 10.9% increase on the outpatient services delivered during the same period in 2006.”

Mr Robertson said 970 patients received their elective surgery at Logan Hospital during the December quarter 2007 – a 2.8% increase on the 944 patients admitted from the waiting list during the same period in 2006.

“58 or 5.3% of the 1,099 patients on elective surgery waiting lists were waiting longer than nationally recommended as at 1 January 2008.

“This compares with 86 or 9.5% of all patients on the elective surgery waiting list a year ago on 1 January 2007.

Mr Robertson said obstetric staff and midwives continue to deal with higher than average numbers of babies being born at Logan Hospital.

“During the December quarter 2007, 818 babies were delivered at Logan Hospital -- 25 more than during the same period in 2006.

“The Logan Hospital staff are to be acknowledged for their dedication and hard work in continuing to meet the challenges of as growing and ageing population,” he said.

Copies of the Queensland Public Hospital Performance Reports can be found on the Queensland Health website at: http://www.health.qld.gov.au/

Definitions:

Outpatient services provided = the number of outpatient and other non-admitted services minus services such as emergency, pharmacy, pathology, diagnostic imaging, community health services, district nursing services and other outreach services.

People treated as inpatients or emergencies = the number of admitted patient episodes plus the number of emergency services not resulting in admission. For example, some people will attend the Emergency Department and then be admitted to hospital. These people will only be counted once as inpatients and not counted as emergency patients for this particular figure.

People admitted to hospital = the number of admitted patient episodes of care. For example, one person might be admitted to hospital on two separate occasions, they would then be counted as two episodes of care.

People treated in emergency departments = the number of accident and emergency services provided. For example, a patient attends emergency three times, then it is counted as three separate attendances to the emergency department.

People received elective surgery = the number of people admitted for elective surgery from the elective surgery waiting list in either Category 1, 2 or 3.

People waiting for elective surgery = the number of patients waiting for elective surgery from Category 1, 2 or 3 with a status of ‘waiting’ or ‘booked’.

MEDIA: PAUL LYNCH 3234 1190