Page 1295 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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report. This is also supported by our consumer satisfaction surveys that we have conducted over the past year, and they always show a very high level of patient satisfaction at TCH.
The report also shows that whereas our costs were 30 per cent above average in 2002-03 they had come down to 24 per cent above average in 2004-05, and again this year our efforts to reduce our costs in terms of inefficiencies have made us now only 14 per cent above the national average. In the last budget the government set a target of being 10 per cent above the national average by 2008-09, and this is going to be clearly achieved. So it shows that, while we are increasing expenditure, our expenditure is going into the delivery of health services and our overheads are coming down, which is extremely pleasing.
The report shows that there are areas where there is more to be done. In category 3 and 4 emergency presentations we are not able to meet the national average in terms of timeliness. This is a concern to the government. We have been putting resources and reform work into the emergency department to deal with timeliness. But the report does show that once people are seen at the emergency department the duration of an event in the emergency department is very efficient, and the time in which people are seen and the quality are good when measured against the national average. But more work needs to be done in categories 3 and 4 to make sure people are seen on time.
In relation to elective surgery, I believe the figure from this year is misleading, and that is because we are targeting the long waits off the list. We have been targeting those who have been between one and two years on the list.
MS MacDONALD: I ask a supplementary question. Minister, could you say if there are any further positives in the report, and what they are?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Ms MacDonald. In terms of elective surgery, we have funded an additional $22 million to provide an additional 4,500 elective surgery procedures that we would not have seen without this investment. Last year, for the first time, we exceeded 9,000 procedures. We are going to repeat that effort this year. We have been targeting those people who have had extended waits on the waiting list. The effect of that is that those people are seen by admissions, and that affects median waiting times.
I am very confident that the median waiting times will be reduced in the next reporting period. For example, in 2005-06, 269 people who had been waiting for surgery for more than two years were admitted, which was an increase of 52 per cent on the previous year. The number of people waiting one year for surgery has dropped by 26 per cent over the last two years as well. That has been the result of a conscious policy decision by the government to target long waits on the list, and that has been reflected in these figures.
The report also highlighted that the increase in available public hospital beds is starting to bear fruit. There was an increase of 5.2 per cent in available hospital beds in the last reporting year. We have moved from 679 beds to 714 beds, an increase of 5.2 per cent against a national decrease of 0.7 per cent. So while there were reductions
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