Waiting lists improve at Toowoomba Hospital

Toowoomba Hospital performed 11 per cent more elective surgery procedures in the December 2008 quarter compared the same period in 2007, 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.

“Surgical teams at Toowoomba Hospital have worked hard during the past year to ensure more patients got their elective surgery,” he said.

“This has resulted in a slight improvement in the number of people waiting for surgery during the period.”

The report shows no category one patient waited longer than recommended for their surgery in the December 2008 quarter.

“In category two, just 0.8 per cent of patients were waiting longer than recommended, while in category three there was a decrease of 54.2 per cent in the number of patients waiting longer than recommended for their surgery compared to the December quarter 2007.

“50 per of Category 1 patients received their treatment within 15 days and 90 per cent were treated within 36 days.”

Mr Robertson said the December 2008 Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report shows there were 15,264 people treated as inpatients or emergencies.

“The hospital provided 7,319 patient episodes of care and 36,644 outpatient occasions of service as well as 10,373 emergency department attendances.

“There was an increase in the number of babies born at Toowoomba Hospital – our total number for the December 2007 quarter was 442 compared to a total of 461 for the December 2008 quarter.”

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.

A complete version of the Queensland Public Hospitals Quarterly Performance Report December 2008 is available in the What's New section of the Queensland Health website at http://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