More patients receive care at Gladstone Hospital

More patients were cared for at the Central Queensland Health Service District in the December quarter than this time last year, the latest Queensland Health report card shows.

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.

Mr Robertson said the December 2008 Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report shows 140 patients were admitted from the elective surgery waiting list at Gladstone Hospital - an increase of 75 per cent on the 80 patients admitted from that list in the previous quarter.

“6,490 people were treated at Gladstone Hospital as inpatients or emergencies in the quarter, which is 7.3 per cent more than the 6,047 in the same quarter last year,” he said.

“Gladstone Hospital provided 1,522 admitted patient episodes of care, up from 1,409, which is an increase of 8 per cent from the corresponding period in 2007.”

Mr Robertson said emergency department doctors and nurses at Gladstone Hospital treated 5,912 patients in the December quarter 2008.

“This represents a decrease of less than 1 per cent from the 5,955 people treated in the same quarter the previous year,” he said.

Gladstone Hospital’s busy emergency department treats an average of 64 people a day.

The hospital’s operating theatres were also busy, with surgeons performing 69 emergency and 373 elective surgery procedures. This is up from the same period in the previous year when 92 emergency procedures and 365 elective surgery procedures were performed.

Mr Robertson said Gladstone Hospital’s surgical team had been working hard to reduce the waiting list for surgery and this was reflected in the figures.

“This increase reflects a catch-up period where a backlog of cases had been caused while we recruited a surgeon to replace a vacancy,” he said.

“Around 50 per cent of Category One patients received their treatment within 22 days and 90 per cent were treated within 42 days.”

In the three months to December 31, 2008, compared to the same quarter in 2007, Queensland hospitals provided:

• 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