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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 209 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Third Assembly, with an increasing emphasis on improving individual and community access to cost-effective and integrated services, something the Minister has been particularly keen on. He has also had a particular focus on better meeting the needs of those who are most disadvantaged. Increasing importance has been given to the primacy of the citizen and the need to ensure that health services are based around the needs of individuals and population groups rather than service providers.

Let us deal with specific things. Let us take the public hospitals. There are a number of facts here of which this Minister can be very proud and the Government can be very proud of the achievements over the last year. An estimated 56,998 people were treated as inpatients - that is, unweighted separations - in the public hospital system in the 1998 calendar year, representing 56,287 weighted separations. That is an increase of one per cent in unweighted separations and 4 per cent in weighted separations on the 1997 calendar year - a record number of people treated. A further $3m was provided in 1998-99 to fund extra operations for people needing elective surgery. That enabled extra surgery to be performed in areas such as hip and knee replacements and plastic procedures at the Lidia Perin Hospital.

Specialist staffing in the emergency department at the Canberra Hospital has been increased from four to 6.4, enabling the number of hours in which specialists are available in emergency to more than double - that is right, more than double - from 40 to 91. That has increased the hospital's capacity to respond to emergencies. Potential patients telephoning the Canberra Hospital's emergency department now have access to a dedicated telephone triage service. The telephone triage nurse position was established in late 1998 and now covers the hours of 9.00 am to 6.00 pm a day. Feedback from the community is very positive about now being able to access a nurse who can provide undivided attention to callers. Improved waiting times in the emergency department are also apparent.

The emergency department's capabilities also were enhanced by the appointment of the ACT's first academic in road trauma, Dr Drew Richardson, Associate Professor of Road Trauma and Emergency Medicine. Associate Professor Cathy Owen was appointed the Chair of Psychiatry, fulfilling a longstanding commitment by the Government. Mr Speaker, these appointments represent a significant enhancement of the capacities of the Canberra Clinical School and of the role of Canberra as a centre of teaching, research and clinical expertise. An offer of appointment has been made for the position of Chair of Nursing, which will facilitate an emphasis on evidence-based practice, patient outcomes and the professional status of nursing. The selected candidate is expected to take up that position in April.

Also, an increasing number of specialty nursing courses commenced during 1998 in recognition of a national shortage of nurses in some specialty areas. Specific nursing staff also have been appointed to support new graduate nurses, who now reach a level of competence more quickly than otherwise would have been the case. These measures are leading to improved patient care, which is what it is all about. Funding has been provided for the initial purchase and establishment of telehealth facilities at the Canberra Hospital, with further work being done on the development of a regional telecommunications centre

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