Page 2957 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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not require complex care. These patients are then redirected to the fast track zone of the emergency department where they are provided with appropriate time for their treatment enabling their discharge within two hours.
We have introduced the 3-2-1 patient tracking system, which divides the journey for patients that are to be admitted from the emergency department into three manageable time periods, which cover: every treatment, three hours; inpatient handover, two hours; and transfer to a ward bed, one hour. We have established a medical assessment and planning unit, which provides 14 additional beds for the quick transfer of more complex patients arriving at the emergency department to a specialist unit that is able to better manage the care of these patients. Surely this is evidence enough of a government working hard to improve access to our public health systems. Surely this is evidence enough of a government not only investing but focusing on improving systems and work processes to improve access to public health for the Canberra community.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is more that we are doing: for example, on top of all of this, we are investing in health services to reduce the demand for emergency and acute hospital care, such as after-hours GP services and clinics. We have expanded home and community care services to keep people healthy and well in their own homes. We have focused on prevention, such as our very successful initiative to prevent elderly people having serious falls that can see them hospitalised for months. We have introduced the chronic disease management program, which targets those most at risk of preventable admissions to the emergency department and admissions to the hospital, and we have also boosted the staffing in our emergency departments with over $1 million extra allocated in 2006-07 to employ more nurses and doctors in our emergency departments. All of these measures reduce pressures on our emergency departments by unblocking the system and enabling better patient flows. This is better for the patients and it is better for the staff in the emergency department.
Another area of increasing pressure is elective surgery. We have absolutely no control over the demand for elective surgery; all we can do is meet the demand with extra dollars and improve efficiency. Additional resources have been provided to help to better manage surgery services and help ensure quicker access to health care. There has been an eight per cent increase in the demand for emergency surgery in 2006, well above the estimated increase of just three per cent. This increased level of demand has resulted in increased demand for beds and operating theatres. To address this, the government has provided $2.5 million in 2007-08 to enable the Canberra Hospital to commission another operating theatre, bringing the total number of theatres available at the hospital to 10. This is on top of the additional $22 million that the government allocated in the previous four years for these services.
The additional resources will help the Canberra Hospital to better manage surgery services and help to ensure quicker access to care. In fact, annual elective surgery throughput was 9,326 in 2006-07, up from 7,661 in 2002-03, or a massive 22 per cent increase in annual throughput. These measures should result in improved waiting times for care in 2007-08. All of this has been made possible through the additional $320 million that the government has added to the health budget since coming to office in 2001. It is not just about money; it is about resources, it is about training, it is
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