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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2964 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Nursing staff receive in-house training three times a week to ensure that their high levels of clinical skills are maintained. The Emergency Department is the only critical care area that has a waiting list of nurses requesting to work in the area. This attests to the high morale and good reputation of the unit under the leadership of Dr Sashi Kumar and clinical nurse consultant Isabel Harvey. The morale of the Emergency Department and the interaction between the medical and nursing staffs are at an all-time high.

Emergency departments are often the target of complaints about the length of waiting time and the service provided, and they often receive media attention in this regard. Diligence and teamwork by the Emergency Department staff have contributed to an increased throughput of patients without increased complaints. Analysis of the complaint-commendation ratio relating to the Canberra Hospital Emergency Department shows that there were only 26 complaints in the first six months of 1996. To put this in context, with the number of occasions of service for this period close to 26,000, this equates to one complaint per thousand patients treated, which is not a lot of complaints, as I am sure everybody would attest to. I am pleased to say that the complaints are outnumbered by written compliments, which for the same period were 36.

The Canberra community quite rightly demands the best possible patient care, while expecting the shortest possible waiting times. Many patients who attend the Emergency Department have minor conditions or illnesses. Although these patients are cared for as carefully as more serious cases, they could be treated more quickly if they went to a general practitioner in the community. To reinforce this information, a video on the role of the Emergency Department is shown regularly in the waiting area to help those people waiting for treatment to understand the priority which must be given to more acutely ill patients. Pamphlets on related issues, such as You Need Your Own Doctor and Is It a Real Emergency?, are always available in the waiting area and are brought to the attention of appropriate patients. By educating and encouraging the community in this manner, many people could avoid the delays in the Emergency Department, and this could reduce situations which lead to the most common complaint - of waiting for long periods.

The Emergency Department triage system classifies patients into five categories. Categories 1, 2 and 3 are priority cases. Categories 4 and 5 are medical conditions which could be managed by a local general practitioner and/or referred to the Emergency Department, if required, after seeing a GP. This system guarantees the highest priority and an increased level of care for those patients with the most urgent needs, while ensuring that patients of any other priority also receive the best possible care.

Mr Speaker, it is a pleasure to advise that the Emergency Department at the Canberra Hospital boasts excellent emergency medical care. The outstanding staff, the level of training and qualification of those staff, and the excellent standard of care that all patients receive certainly compare favourably with those of any other emergency department in the country. I am really pleased, Mr Speaker, to be able to stand up here today and speak about an area of our health system which is operating extremely well and where the morale is very high. We are very fortunate to have this outstanding department, staffed by professionals of the highest calibre, caring for the people of Canberra.

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