Page 4974 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 November 2017

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(7) Do emergency departments refer such patients back to the relevant private medical service; if not, why not; if so, why.

Ms Fitzharris: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

1. A direct correlation between hospital Emergency Department (ED) activity and Walk-in Centre (WiC) activity is not possible, because the issue is multifactorial.

2. Of the 36,785 presentations to WiCs in 2016-17, around one quarter required referral elsewhere. Of those presentations, 30 per cent were referred to emergency departments and 70 per cent were referred to private medical services.

3. The terminology used is Event Summary. At the conclusion of the presentation, if a patient has a GP and provides consent for information sharing, the Event Summary is automatically sent to their GP. The Event Summary contains:

a. Reason for presentation

b. Diagnosis/problem/clinical impression

c. Assessment

d. Summary of treatment

e. Follow-up requirements

f. Clinician name, signature, date

4. No. All presentations at ED go through the same, formal triage process, using the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS).

5. No.

6. The number of patients who were referred to private medical services who presented instead at an ACT emergency department within 24 hours of a nurse-led WiC presentation for each financial year is:

* Patients presenting to an emergency department may not necessarily be presenting for the same reason as for the attendance at the nurse-led WiC.

No. All patients who present to the ED are triaged according to the ATS, in anticipation of medical assessment and treatment. In the context of the ED, the term ‘refer’ means to request or recommend further treatment, for example further speciality treatment, or ongoing management with a GP. EDs only refer patients to other services as a result of medical assessment, planning and treatment. The correct term for the process described in question 6 would be ‘redirect’. The Canberra Hospital ED do not redirect people to other services as an alternative to the triage process, because as the only public, tertiary referral hospital in the region, we have a

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