Record Numbers of Patients treated at Cairns Base Hospital

A significant increase in elective surgery procedures has been recorded at Cairns Base Hospital in the past three months, according to the latest Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report released today.

The report for the September quarter 2008 shows Cairns Base Hospital treated 1,345 elective surgery patients - an increase of 14.8 per cent on the same period last year.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report showed the Bligh Government’s $10 billion Health Action Plan was delivering significantly improved health services for Queenslanders.

“Our Health Action plan is transforming Queensland’s health services and there’s no better proof of this than the amount of elective surgery being performed at Cairns Base Hospital, despite a significant increase in emergency department attendances,” Mr Robertson said.

“This increase is part of a trend across the State, which has seen a record number of elective surgery procedures performed in Queensland public hospitals in the past three months.

Mr Robertson said half of Category 1 elective surgery patients (i.e. those most in need of elective surgery) were treated within 16 days and 90 per cent within two months of being referred for surgery.

“While our ground-breaking Surgery Connect program is delivering real improvements to elective surgery waiting lists here in Cairns, we can always do more,” he said.

“We’re not resting on our laurels and we will continue to do the hard yards to deliver sustainable health services for Cairns residents, now and in the future to reduce waiting lists even further.”

He said Cairns Base Hospital treated 19,436 people as inpatients or emergencies during the September quarter 2008.

“This is a 4.2 per cent increase on the June quarter 2008 and a massive 10.1 per cent increase on the same period last year,” he said.

“The hospital provided 38,145 specialist outpatient appointments in the past three months – a huge increase of 36.4 per cent on the September quarter 2007.

“In addition, the hospital’s emergency department handled 10,985 attendances during the September 2008 quarter, an increase of 7.2 per cent in the past twelve months.

“Like other parts of Queensland, emergency department admissions in Cairns are outstripping population growth.

“That’s why we’re committed to increasing the number of emergency department treatment spaces from 30 to 50 as part of the hospital’s redevelopment.

“With hospital admissions state-wide increasing by more than double population growth, I have endorsed the eight 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 praised Cairns Base Hospital staff for keeping pace with the increasing workload.

“I have nothing but praise for our dedicated staff and I thank them all for their hard work.”

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’.