Commonwealth told Measuring Health Performance a Two Way Street

The Federal Government should agree to publish regular performance reports on areas of the health system it is responsible for, Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson said today.

Mr Robertson - who is also chair of the Australian Health Ministers Council - said Queensland had no problem with reporting on hospital performance.

“Queensland already has the most transparent reporting framework in Australia with reports on the performance of our public hospitals publicly released every three months,” he said.

“Queensland Health also publishes daily reports on its website on the status of our hospital emergency departments and whether patients are waiting to be transferred to ward beds

“However, these reports won’t give the full picture of health system performance unless the Commonwealth agrees to report against their own performance in areas they are responsible for.

“Areas of Commonwealth responsibility include primary health care and aged care sectors.

“Performance reporting in these areas is the only way the community can fully assess whether our health system in Australia is improving.”

Mr Robertson said hospitals throughout Australia were under pressure because of record numbers of patients attending emergency departments due largely to the increasing difficulty in accessing a GP or other health services in the community.

“The primary health care sector is one area where the Federal Government has direct responsibility.

“Attendances at Queensland public hospital emergency departments increased in the December 2007 quarter by 9.7% compared to the same quarter in 2006.

“That’s nearly five times population growth so something other than population growth is driving that extra demand -- and that factor is GP accessibility,” Mr Robertson said.

“In some parts of Queensland, the increases were even greater with the Gold Coast experiencing a 35% increase and Cairns a 18% increase in hospital emergency department attendances over the quarter.

“Its pointless being critical of the performance of State public hospitals when - as a result of inadequate resourcing of the primary health care sector - those pressures are heightened .

“The Commonwealth needs to understand the kinds of pressures the States are under.

“Unless it does, the Commonwealth will quickly become frustrated with elective surgery performance if the same doctors and surgical teams that perform elective surgery are having to focus instead on ever-increasing demand for emergency surgery coming through emergency departments.

“That’s why the Commonwealth should agree to a number of performance measures that will enable the community to judge whether they are doing the right thing.

“It would also be a useful brake on a retreat back into the blame game that has crippled sensible and productive debate in health over the past decade.”

Reporting measures on Commonwealth performance could include, but not be limited to:-

·Increasing the GP/population ratio;

·Increasing bulk billing rates for GP’s ;

·Waiting times to access a GP;

·Percentage of people with private health insurance;

·Waiting times to access residential aged care services;

·Number of potentially preventable hospital admissions.

“These are all areas where if the Commonwealth does not perform then patient demand for services ends up on the doorstep of State-run public hospitals.”

Mr Robertson said he agreed with Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon that better reporting will ensure we can pinpoint what is and isn’t working in the health system and fix it.

“All I want to see is this level of transparency applied right across the health system irrespective whether it’s the States and Territories, the Commonwealth or the private health sector.”

Mr Robertson will be seeking a commitment from the Commonwealth to agree to performance benchmarks at the Health Minister’s Council in Sydney on Friday.

MEDIA: JOSH COONEY 3234 1185 or 0409 069 056