Page 1879 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2006
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2006-07 financial year. So, if we go back to Mr Smyth’s claim of 100 more beds, where would he like us to cut them? We have 126 in the pipeline, 50 in already. As usual, we would go backwards with Mr Smyth. We have allocated an additional $13 million over three budget years to improve access to elective surgery, which will have provided more than 1,500 more operations over the last three years than otherwise would have been the case.
Growth in elective surgery admissions over the last three years has been at a record level: 7,661 in 2002-03; 8,548 in 2003-04, a record; 8,617 in 2004-05, a record on top of the previous one; and 9,000 estimated for 2005-06, again above both previous records. The capacity of beds and operating time has been boosted by the addition of the 20 acute and three ICU beds to support elective surgery throughput.
What are we doing about the emergency department and timely access to acute hospital services? The government has a three-pronged approach to improving access to hospital services. Firstly, we are working on reducing the demand for emergency and acute hospital care. We are doing this through our support for expanded after-hours GP services and clinics at Canberra and Calvary hospitals, expanded home and community care services to keep people healthy and well in their own homes, focusing on the prevention of admissions through our successful falls prevention in the elderly initiatives, and extra support for better hospital discharge practices and innovative models of care for those with chronic disease, with $1.9 million over four years in the 2006-07 budget.
Secondly, we are increasing the capacity of our hospital health care system. We have funded an additional 20 acute medical beds, on line since July 2005, and we have provided an additional $13 million over the last three years to improve access to elective surgery which will have provided more than 1,500 more operations over the last three years, as I said, than otherwise would have been the case. Our 2006-07 budget takes this one step further, with an additional $10.3 million over four years for elective surgery.
We have reintroduced discharge lounges at our hospitals to free up acute beds. We have funded services that provide for high-need children to be cared for at home rather than in hospital, thus freeing up beds. We have funded an additional three ICU beds, reducing blockages and providing more access for elective surgery. We have filled the first 10 beds of the new 60-bed subacute and non-acute service, with the next 50 to come on stream in December 2006 and early 2007. When complete, this service will add an additional 51 beds to the system.
We have commissioned the ninth operating theatre at TCH, which increases patient flows and reduces elective surgery postponement rates. We have established short-stay inpatient units next to our emergency departments to further improve access to care, adding a further 17 beds to our hospital system. Fifteen transitional aged care beds run by the aged care sector will be in place in June 2006. This comes to a total of 106 extra beds by December 2006, of which 50 are in place now. The 2006-07 budget also commits funding for an additional 20 acute beds. That amounts to total government funding commitments in the current term for 126 extra beds, with 50 in place now and the rest to follow progressively in the 2006-07 financial year: no “100 beds Smythie” for us.
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