More patients, more surgery at Caboolture Hospital

Caboolture Hospital is treating more patients and performing more elective surgery, according to the latest Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said Caboolture Hospital treated 566 elective surgery patients in the September quarter, compared with 528 in the June quarter and 523 from the September 2007 quarter.

“Waiting times for Caboolture elective surgery patients are also down compared to the previous quarter,” he said.

“There have been no patients on ‘long wait’ lists for elective surgery at Caboolture Hospital since 1 July, 2008.

“The report shows 90 per cent of category one patients treated within 27 days.

“These are signs that the Bligh Government’s $10 billion Health Action Plan is delivering improved health services to Queenslanders.”

Mr Robertson said emergency department attendances at Caboolture Hospital were continuing to outstrip population growth.

“Caboolture Hospital treated 10,575 patients in its Emergency Department during the September quarter, up 4.2 per cent on the June quarter in 2008,” he said.

“With hospital admissions state-wide increasing by more than double population growth, I have endorsed the 8 point, ‘Whole-of-Hospital Plan’ developed by Senior Emergency Clinicians to reduce access block across our major public hospitals (attached) to reduce emergency department and admission waiting times even further.”

Mr Robertson said the hospital treated 5286 inpatients in July August and September, up almost 18 per cent on the June quarter 2008 and more than 11 per cent up on the September quarter 2007.

Statewide, the September 2008 Quarterly Public Hospital Performance Report shows that compared to the same time last year there has been:

·a 5.8 per cent increase in emergency department attendances;

·a 5.9 per cent increase in hospital admissions;

·a 6.2 per cent increase in specialist outpatient appointments;

·an 8.9 per cent increase in elective surgery procedures;

·and a 17.6 per cent reduction in patients waiting longer than clinically desirable for their elective surgery.

The Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report (September 08 quarter) is available in the What's New section of the Queensland Health website at http://www.health.qld.gov.au/.

Ends.

MEDIA: Kate Van Poelgeest 3234 1185 or Martin Philip 3235 2680

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”.

Category 1= urgent admission within 30 days desirable, for a condition that has the potential to deteriorate quickly to the point that it may become an emergency.

Category 2 = semi-urgent admission within 90 days desirable, for a condition causing some pain, dysfunction or disability but which is not likely to deteriorate quickly or become an emergency.

Category 3 = non-urgent admission at some time in the future acceptable, for a condition causing minimal or no pain, dysfunction or disability, which is unlikely to deteriorate quickly and which does not have the potential to become an emergency.