Page 1107 - Week 04 - Thursday, 1 April 1993
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MINISTER FOR HEALTH
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION
QUESTION NO. 512
Woden Valley Hospital - Emergency Department
Waiting Times
Mr Humphries - asked the Minister for Health:
In relation to the casualty section at Woden Valley Hospital on the evening of Saturday 23 January to Sunday 24 January 1993
(1) Can the Minister confirm that some people attending the casualty section were required to wait from 4 pm until 1 am for attention.
(2) On how many occasions in the last two months have waiting times at casualty exceeded 9 hours.
Mr Berry - the answer to Mr Humphries:
The name of the casualty section at Woden Valley Hospital was changed to Emergency Department some two years ago in line with the policy of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine. The name change was undertaken to enable the public to more clearly understand the role of the department having responsibility for the treatment of the acutely and seriously ill whose management should at all times take priority.
(1) The computerised attendance record for the Woden Valley Hospital Emergency
Department has been examined and there is no patient identified who waited from
4 pm on 23 January 1993 until 1 am the following morning for attention.
16 patients were registered between 3 pm and 5 pm. From registering to completion of treatment and discharge home or admission, the average time for this group of patients was one hour and forty minutes; the longest time was five and a half hours for a client who had been involved in a pushbike accident.
(2) There is no record of waiting times exceeding nine hours in the last two months.
Standing orders require that the Emergency Specialist on call be notified if the
wait for minor complaints exceeds four hours.
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