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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2240 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

have most reason for believing that there was a crisis. Let us look at the emergency department and the intensive care unit, comparing the national average with the one for the Canberra Hospital.

For category 1 patients in emergency, the national average for resuscitation cases seen immediately is 95.1 per cent. For Canberra Hospital it is 98.8 per cent, much better than the national average. For category 2, which relates to emergency cases seen within 10 minutes, the national average is 78.7 per cent. For the Canberra Hospital it is 88.5 per cent; it is leading again. For category 3, urgent cases seen within 30 minutes, the national average is 61.1 per cent. For the Canberra Hospital it is 88.2 per cent, well ahead of the national average.

For category 4, semi-urgent cases seen within 60 minutes, the national average is 67.6 per cent. For the Canberra Hospital it is 70.1 per cent; it is still well above the national average. For category 5, non-urgent cases seen within 120 minutes, the national average is 80.5 per cent. For the Canberra Hospital it is 84.7 per cent. In every single category it is well ahead of the national average. This hospital is not a hospital in crisis in the emergency area; it is a hospital that is doing very well according to an independent survey by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, which assesses these things.

What happens in terms of outcomes, which is much more important? We are interested in patient care; so what happens in terms of patient care? For patients with head injuries undergoing craniotomy within four hours of presentation to emergency the national average for hospitals with more than 500 beds, so we are comparing like with like, is 16.9 per cent. For the Canberra Hospital it is 24 per cent, once again getting well ahead. For patients admitted with cervical spine injury which was not the recorded diagnosis of the emergency department-that is, undiagnosed-the national average is 8.6 per cent. In every case at the Canberra Hospital such a patient has been recognised; in other words, zero per cent, which is a big improvement on the national average.

That is just the emergency area. I will give one more example because I think it is really important to do so. I refer to the intensive care unit. Anybody who says that the Canberra Hospital has been in crisis recently would have to point to an area and the area you would have to point to would be the intensive care unit. The indicator for the comparison by the independent Australian Council on Healthcare Standards is of the appropriate patients referred to the ICU who were not admitted because of inadequate resources, for example, not having adequate nursing staff at the time and so forth. What was the national average? It was 5.6 per cent. What was the result for the Canberra Hospital? It was more than 10 times better at 0.5 per cent. Good on you Canberra Hospital! Good on you emergency! It is a great hospital. It is not in crisis and we have a great public health system.

That does not mean, Mr Wood, that we cannot do better. The situation you have raised is totally unacceptable and we are working on it. We are bringing the waiting lists down and we are bringing waiting times down. That is why we put these issues out to tender and we are going to keep improving on it so that we do not get the sorts of circumstances that you have raised.

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