A busy three months for Ipswich Hospital

Performance figures released today for the September quarter show Ipswich Hospital is working harder than ever with increases in admissions, emergency attendances and elective surgery procedures continuing to far outstrip population growth.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the Quarterly Public Hospital Performance Report for the months of July, August and September shows the number of hospital admissions in Ipswich increased by 5.4 per cent, compared to the September 2007 quarter.

“This equates to an extra 440 patients requiring admission in a three month period,” Mr Robertson said.

“The increase was a result of a large number of seriously ill people, who required hospital admission, presenting to the Emergency Department.

Emergency Department activity increased by 7.7 per cent from the previous three months with 12,480 people being seen, or an extra 900 patients.

Mr Robertson said emergency department attendances continued to climb across the State with attendances up 5.8 per cent on the September 2007 quarter.

“This is partly due to an ageing population facing more chronic disease, and also a continuing dearth of General Practitioners.

Mr Robertson said a national patient survey commissioned by state health departments in 2007 showed 75 per cent of patients surveyed said problems with GP accessibility was their reason for attending a hospital emergency department.

“Of those surveyed only 34 per cent really thought they needed hospital or emergency treatment.

“Obviously this has an impact on our hospitals and contributes to longer than desirable waiting times.

“Even so waiting time at hospital emergency departments improved modestly over the quarter in three out of five categories.

“We’re also working with the Rudd Government to reduce waiting lists, as well as looking at measures to improve access to aged care beds to reduce access block.

Mr Robertson said the number of emergency admissions had increased by 13.9 per cent since the launch of the Health Action Plan in 2006.

Over the same period, Queensland’s population increased by approximately 6 per cent.

“With hospital admissions 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 to reduce ED and admission waiting times even further.

“The extra winter demand some elective surgery required rescheduling to ensure the hospital could respond to the increase in demand for inpatient care.

The rescheduling of some elective surgery resulted in a slight increase in Category 2 ‘long wait’ area by 17 patients on the previous quarter.

I congratulate staff for their hard work, dedication and continuous commitment to the community’s health and well being”.

A complete version of the Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report (September 08 quarter) is available in the ‘What's New’ section of the Queensland Health website at www.health.qld.gov.au

Ends.

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

* The eight points are:

• Implementing robust internal processes to improve bed availability.
• Ensuring timely and appropriate discharge protocols are in place with executive directors of Medical Services and Nursing directly involved in managing this.
• Enabling key staff to have input into developing strategies to reduce pressure on emergency departments.
• Introducing into performance contracts for District CEOs personal accountabilities for managing organisational issues impacting access block.
• Focussing on whole of hospital performance indicators for access block.
• Developing and implementing predictive software to enhance bed management.
• Working with the Divisions of General Practice to enhance access to GP and other community-based services.
• Creating a senior position within Queensland Health to bring an organisation-wide focus to improving emergency department services and links with intensive care issues.