More patients receive care at Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital

Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital continues to cut elective surgery waiting lists, 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.

The December 2008 Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report released today shows the number of people waiting for elective surgery in Queensland’s largest and busiest hospital has dropped over the past 12 months.

“In the December 2008 quarter, 3,468 patients from the elective surgery waiting lists were admitted, an increase of 4.0 per cent from the 3,336 patients admitted from the waiting list during the December quarter 2007,” Mr Robertson said.

“This reflects RBWH’s status as the premier tertiary referral hospital in Queensland and the fact that it performs many of the complex and time-consuming surgical cases from around the state.

“The number of category 3 patients waiting longer than the desired 365 days for surgery has fallen 10% in the past 12 months to 43.3%.

“I commend all hospital staff for contributing to these impressive results.”

Mr Robertson said that of the category one patients treated, 50 per cent were treated within 14 days and 90 per cent were treated within 39 days.

“At the same time, there was an increased demand for service and matching increase in service delivery for patients who needed to be admitted throughout the December quarter,” he said.

“In the December 2008 quarter, there were 19,132 admitted patient episodes of care – up from the 18,960 admitted patient episodes of care in the September Quarter 2008.

“The hospital’s hard-working emergency department staff treated 17,668 patients in the December quarter – a 1.1 per cent decrease from the 17,858 for the September Quarter 2008.

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 September 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