Page 2964 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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emergency department specialists and registrars within the ED; further, employing general practitioners to manage lower acuity patients.
Mr Corbell previously mentioned the access improvement program, or the AIP, in 2005-06. The AIP uses the experience and knowledge of the people on the ground in our health system to identify barriers to effective care and to develop solutions that improve access to our public hospitals.
During the 2006-2007 year, the program assisted clinicians and managers with the ACT health system to complete a range of projects, including establishment of the medical assessment and planning unit or the MAPU; a 14-bed acute unit for complex older patients; improvements to the surgical patients journey, which has cut the number of people who had their elective surgery cancelled by almost 50 per cent during a period of increased demand for surgery. There was an eight per cent increase in emergency surgery and a record level of throughput.
Improvement of bed management practices at the Canberra Hospital, also previously mentioned, was supporting the introduction of the 3-2-1 model of care in our emergency department and was further assisting with the redesign of the fast-track model of care in the emergency department. We will continue to build on the capacity of our hospitals to meet the demand and pressures of our health system. The government will continue to increase our investment and, over the next two years, the number of beds available will grow to over 800. Again the rate-limiting step is staffing, and these bed numbers will continue to gradually build up.
We have made the commitment to a long-term overhaul of our acute care system and an investment in the capacity to achieve this. This government has provided the investment to continue improving our services in our emergency departments. I know Dr Foskey alluded to the issue in her speech, but there is also the issue of a lack of GPs. Probably the biggest factor behind the increased demand for emergency departments is the lack of access for general practitioners. As you know, general practitioners are a commonwealth responsibility and unfortunately, due to the failures of the current federal Liberal government, we are 60 GPs short in the ACT.
The result of all of this is that the ACT has the second highest per capita usage of emergency departments in Australia. In fact, the utilisation rate is approximately more than 20 per cent above the national average. Yes, that is right, Mr Deputy Speaker; we are shouldering the consequences of a lack of planning at the federal level.
I wanted to also mention CALMS. In May 2005, the ACT government launched a new model of after-hours general practice service in the ACT. The Canberra After-hours Locum Medical Service, or CALMS, provides the new model of care delivery for after-hours GP services in the ACT. GP locum services are now available to members of the ACT community from 6.00 pm till 8.30 am every week day and over the entire weekend period from 6.00 pm on Friday to 8.30 am on Monday. The service also operates on all public holidays. The clinics are located at both Calvary Hospital and the Canberra Hospital and, on weekends, a third clinic operates from the Tuggeranong Health Centre.
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