Elective surgery increases at Logan hospital

A sharp rise in elective surgery procedures has been recorded at Logan Hospital in the past 12 months, according to the December Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report.

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.

“The report shows Logan Hospital treated 1071 patients from the elective surgery waiting list, an increase of 10.4 per cent on the same period in 2007,” he said.

“Of the category one patients treated, half were treated within nine days and 90 per cent were treated within 28 days.

“At the same time, elective surgical waiting lists have been reduced with just three category one patients waiting longer than 30 days for their surgery, compared with four patients at 1 January 2008.

“Maternity services at the hospital also recorded strong growth, with 905 babies delivered - an increase of 10.6 per cent from the 818 babies delivered during the same time period in 2007.”

Mr Robertson said emergency department doctors and nurses at Logan Hospital treated 14,957 patients in the December 2008 quarter - a decrease of 4.5 per cent compared with the same quarter in the preceding year.

Logan Hospital’s busy Emergency Department treats an average of 162 people a day.

“During the December 2008 quarter, Logan Hospital admitted 8583 people compared with 8241 for the same period in 2007 - an increase of 4.1 per cent.

“The hospital’s outpatient departments saw a slight decline in activity, with 24,769 occasions of service. This is down 5.8% from 2007 when Logan Hospital provided 26,282 occasions of service in the last three months of that year.”

Mr Robertson praised the work of staff for keeping pace with the hospital’s increasing workload.

“As at January 1 2009, there were fewer patients (1,035) on the elective surgery waiting list in all categories, compared to 1119 as at 1 October 2008 and 1099 as at 1 January 2008.

“Logan Hospital surgeons have worked hard during the past year to improve the overall numbers of people undergoing elective surgery procedures.”

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