More patients receive care at Caboolture hospital

Caboolture Hospital continues to respond to the health needs of its community by caring for increasing numbers of patients, the latest Queensland Health report card shows.

The Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report December Quarter 2008 shows that most areas of the hospital’s activity have continued to increase.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the increased activity demonstrated the impact of the additional $10 billion Health Action Plan funding which is expanding the capacity of our public hospitals throughout Queensland.

During the December 2008 quarter, the hospital treated 14,069 people as inpatients or emergencies, a notable 14.6% increase from the same period last year.

Emergency department attendances remained fairly steady, with 10,459 people presenting to the hospital for emergency medical care. This is a 2.6% percent increase from the same quarter the previous year.

The department sees an average of 114 patients each day.

Mr Robertson said improvements to the hospital’s emergency department were putting it on track to meet the growing demand for emergency care.

Caboolture Hospital has also continued to perform extremely well in the area of elective surgery.

It admitted 573 patients from the elective surgery waiting list, an increase of 10.2% from the 520 patients admitted from the waiting list during the same period last year.

Of the Category 1 patients waiting for elective surgery, half were treated within 16 days and 90% were treated within 27 days.

The same efficiency was experienced by other patients waiting, with 50% of the hospital’s Category 2 patients being treated in 32 days and 50% of the hospital’s Category 3 patients being treated in 64 days.

“At January 1, no patient within any Category was waiting longer than the recommended timeframe for their elective surgery procedure,” Mr Robertson said.

The Hospital delivered a total of 508 babies, an 18.7% increase from the 428 babies born at the hospital during the same period last year.

“The reduction in the outpatient occasions of service from last year’s December quarter can be explained by a temporary reduced availability of specialist staff, which has now been addressed.”

In the three months to December 31, 2008, compared to the same quarter in 2007, Queensland hospitals provided over 40,000 more treatments including :

• A 3.2 per cent increase (or 11,744 more patients) in the number of people treated in emergency departments

• A 5.9 per cent increase (or 12,284 more patients) in the number of people admitted to hospital

• An 8.4 per cent increase (or 8,520 more patients) in the number of people admitted for same day care in a hospital

• A 3.6 per cent increase (or 3,764 more patients) in the number of people admitted for more than one day

• A 0.4 per cent increase (or 3,074 more appointments) in the number of outpatient services provided

• A 6.8 per cent increase (or 1,950 more patients) in the number of people receiving elective surgery, and

• A 4.8 per cent increase (or 482 more babies) in the number of babies born

Mr Robertson said staffing continued to grow strongly. Since 2005 Queensland Health has employed:

• 1,715 more doctors, a 38 per cent increase to 6,267
• 5,778 more nurses, a 26 per cent to 27,689, and
• 2,134 more health practitioners, professional and technical staff, up 31 per cent to 9,068.

Mr Robertson said the quarterly performance report reflected the hard work and commitment of the dedicated Queensland Health staff across the state, and he commended their efforts in providing quality health care to people in their communities.

The Queensland Public Hospitals Performance Report December Quarter 2008 is available on Queensland Health’s website at www.health.qld.gov.au

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.

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.

Long-wait

Term applied to any waiting time that exceeds the recommendation for that category.

ENDS

MEDIA: Kate Van Poelgeest 3234 1185 or 0458 449 267