Published Thursday, 06 November, 2008 at 04:03 PM
Minister for Health
The Honourable Stephen Robertson
Steady patient growth at The Prince Charles Hospital
The number of patients treated at The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH) continues to climb as the Northside facility establishes itself as a general hospital with cardiothoracic specialties.
Health Minister Stephen Robertson released the September 2008 Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report, which shows 13,516 people were treated as inpatients or as emergency cases in the past three months - an increase of 6.9 per cent.
Mr Robertson said the report on the last quarter takes the hospital past the 12 month stage since TPCH started to provide general surgical services and increased its general medicine capacity.
“This is reflected by the significant increase in the number of people treated in the same period12 months ago, with the report showing a 22.3 per cent increase.
“In just the past three months emergency department attendances have increased by 10.4 per cent with specialist emergency staff treating 8,817 people.
“The growing number of people accessing the hospital’s expanded emergency medicine service is highlighted through the large increase over the last 12 months.
TPCH’s Outpatients, Private Practice and Pre-admission Clinic recently combined to operate under one umbrella in expanded rooms created in the area vacated by the former emergency department.
In the past three months, practitioners saw 25,530 outpatients, up 9.6 per cent on the June quarter and a steady 5 per cent on numbers from the same period last year.
Mr Robertson said the 968 patients admitted from the elective surgery list in the past three months represented a slight increase of 1.6 per cent when compared with the previous quarter.
“The increase in activity was partly due to the elective surgery collaboration between The Prince Charles, Royal Brisbane and Women’s, Caboolture, and Redcliffe hospitals which was established to reduce elective surgery waiting times for residents living in the northern areas of Brisbane,” he said.
Of the category 1 patients treated, half were treated within two days and 90 percent within 28 days.
In Category2 , half the patients were treated within 42 days and 90 per cent within 97 days.
Half of the category 3 patients were treated within 61 days and 90 per cent within 122 days.
At October 1 this year, 2 category one patients were waiting longer than 30 days for their surgery, 54 category two patients were waiting more than 90 days and 2 category three patients were waiting more than a year.
Mr Robertson said the report reflected The Prince Charles Hospital’s capacity to provide quality health care to patients while continuing to meet the increasing demands on its services.
The Queensland Public Hospitals Quarterly 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.
Health Minister Stephen Robertson released the September 2008 Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report, which shows 13,516 people were treated as inpatients or as emergency cases in the past three months - an increase of 6.9 per cent.
Mr Robertson said the report on the last quarter takes the hospital past the 12 month stage since TPCH started to provide general surgical services and increased its general medicine capacity.
“This is reflected by the significant increase in the number of people treated in the same period12 months ago, with the report showing a 22.3 per cent increase.
“In just the past three months emergency department attendances have increased by 10.4 per cent with specialist emergency staff treating 8,817 people.
“The growing number of people accessing the hospital’s expanded emergency medicine service is highlighted through the large increase over the last 12 months.
TPCH’s Outpatients, Private Practice and Pre-admission Clinic recently combined to operate under one umbrella in expanded rooms created in the area vacated by the former emergency department.
In the past three months, practitioners saw 25,530 outpatients, up 9.6 per cent on the June quarter and a steady 5 per cent on numbers from the same period last year.
Mr Robertson said the 968 patients admitted from the elective surgery list in the past three months represented a slight increase of 1.6 per cent when compared with the previous quarter.
“The increase in activity was partly due to the elective surgery collaboration between The Prince Charles, Royal Brisbane and Women’s, Caboolture, and Redcliffe hospitals which was established to reduce elective surgery waiting times for residents living in the northern areas of Brisbane,” he said.
Of the category 1 patients treated, half were treated within two days and 90 percent within 28 days.
In Category2 , half the patients were treated within 42 days and 90 per cent within 97 days.
Half of the category 3 patients were treated within 61 days and 90 per cent within 122 days.
At October 1 this year, 2 category one patients were waiting longer than 30 days for their surgery, 54 category two patients were waiting more than 90 days and 2 category three patients were waiting more than a year.
Mr Robertson said the report reflected The Prince Charles Hospital’s capacity to provide quality health care to patients while continuing to meet the increasing demands on its services.
The Queensland Public Hospitals Quarterly 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.