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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 2754 ..

4. The Canberra Hospital, being the primary referral hospital and major trauma centre in the area, is the main service provider in the South-East region of NSW. This area stretches from Young, Goulburn, across to Batemans Bay and south to the Victorian border.

5. The Snowy Hydro SouthCare Helicopter Service provides aero-medical retrieval and rescue services to the Southern region of NSW.

A medical retrieval from one of the NSW regional hospitals is activated when the physician at the regional hospital deems that the patient requires clinical care/treatment above and beyond what can be provided at their institution.

Whilst there are a number of hospitals located in the region served by SouthCare, a large amount of these regional hospitals do not have ready access to specialist medical staff/equipment required to ensure that optimum clinical care is provided to the patient. It should also be noted that The Canberra Hospital receives the majority of these patients due to its accreditation as the regional trauma centre. On some occasions patients are transported to specialist hospitals mostly in Sydney according to the patient's condition.

The destination hospital for the patient being retrieved may vary depending on the clinical needs and treatment requirement of the patient. The on-duty Medical Retrieval Consultant takes this decision at the time of retrieval.

6. During 1999/00 the Service flew 158 medical retrievals. Of these, 93.2% of patients were flown to The Canberra Hospital and 6.8% were flown to hospitals other than The Canberra Hospital.

During 2000/01 the Service flew 192 medical retrievals. Of these, 88.06% of the patients were flown to The Canberra Hospital and 11.94% were flown to hospitals other than The Canberra Hospital.

7. In 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 the ACT received $48,503,095 and approximately $50,000,000 respectively from NSW Health for services provided to NSW residents in ACT public hospitals. This money is paid directly to the ACT Health Department as remuneration for both private and public patients irrespective of which public hospital they are treated in. The Canberra Hospital is in turn funded by the ACT Health Department for service provision to interstate patients.

8. The funding provided by NSW Health to ACT Health is calculated on the basis of costweighted separations. This means the payment takes into account the number of separations (episodes of care in hospital), the length that the patient stays, as well as the costs involved in treating the patient's condition.

9. See response to question 8.

10. Yearly operating costs for the Service amount to $2.6m. The funding of the Service by Governments is split 90% to NSW and 10% to ACT in accordance with the funding model agreement between the ACT and NSW Governments.

11. It is not possible to ascertain whether or not a patient is waiting for a place in a convalescent facility, as there is no data collected on this item. With regard to patients from NSW waiting to obtain a nursing home bed, at present there are no patients who fit this criterion.

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