Page 418 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 March 2014
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MS GALLAGHER: When small numbers jump around, and they do—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MS GALLAGHER: with respect to the difference between the 30-odd cases—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, you have asked your question.
MS GALLAGHER: and the 40-odd cases, it is against a backdrop of 72,000 cost-weighted separations in the hospital. So let us just understand that—72,000 cost weights across the hospital, and there has been an increase in the order of 10 cases, from 33 to 41. In each one of those the hospital has gone back and examined them to ascertain whether there is a systemic trend occurring, if there is anything that needs to be picked up, and the response back from that is that no, there was not.
I am very confident that infection control procedures at Canberra Hospital and Calvary hospital are very focused on ensuring good hygiene across the hospital. Members will have seen, if they have visited the hospital—Mr Hanson does not sound very interested in the answer to this question; he sounds more interested in what Mr Coe is saying to him but—
Opposition members interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MS GALLAGHER: And let us have a look at the number of cost weights that have occurred since that time as well—the actual level of activity that is happening in a complex tertiary hospital like Canberra. But if people visit the hospital, they will see the steps that have been taken, particularly around hand hygiene. It is for people who visit the hospital, patients and staff.
If you go to the MyHospitals website, they report against hand hygiene, and the audits performed at Canberra Hospital and Calvary hospital have been improving. In fact Calvary does very well, and I think Canberra’s performance is improving, for a much larger hospital. One of the most significant areas we have to work on is doctors’ hand hygiene. So the focus has to be on getting the doctors to wash their hands before they go and visit individual patients.
There is nothing, from my point of view, and I have looked at this closely. I am not overly concerned. I am very confident about the staff. We are very lucky to have Professor Collignon working in the ACT—one of Australia’s leading experts in this area. We also do a very high and thorough report analysis and testing of each case. I think that certainly contributes to the numbers at Canberra Hospital. The advice to me is that there is no failure of the system in relation to the small number of cases where
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