Page 1075 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011

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(a) that in the Minister’s Foreword to ACT Health’s ACT Public Health Services Quarterly Performance Report December 2010, the Minister claims that the report shows that the increased investment in the Territory’s public health services is working to provide better access to care;

(b) that the Quarterly Performance Report December 2010 shows that:

(i) elective surgery waiting times have deteriorated across all three categories;

(ii) the proportion of Category 1 “urgent” patients who have their surgery on time has deteriorated;

(iii) the number of patients waiting longer than a year for elective surgery has increased;

(iv) the proportion of patients who have had their elective surgery postponed has increased;

(v) the percentage of Emergency Department presentations seen on time has deteriorated across four of the five categories;

(vi) 6 030 patients presenting at Emergency Departments did not wait for treatment, an increase of 14 percent from 2009-10; and

(vii) the Emergency Department access block did not meet targets and had deteriorated for mental health clients;

(c) that throughout the extensive Minister’s Foreword, and her accompanying press release, the Minister did not make mention of any deterioration in performance measures, despite the report showing that more than half of the performance categories measured have deteriorated; and

(d) that the Minister’s claim of the report showing better access to care is false, uses selective data, and is intentionally misleading; and

(2) calls on the Minister for Health to:

(a) acknowledge that access for patients seeking elective surgery and Emergency Department treatment has deteriorated;

(b) acknowledge that a significant proportion of other outcomes measured in the report have also deteriorated; and

(c) provide a more accurate and honest summation of public health services in the Minister’s Foreword to ACT Health quarterly performance reports and accompanying press releases.

On 17 March this year the health minister released the ACT public health services quarterly performance report dated December 2010. At the same time she released a

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