Page 1972 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 5 June 2018
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Research) (10.22): Today I would like to update the Assembly and the broader community on the progress ACT Health is making as it works towards re-accreditation of ACT Health. Madam Speaker, as you would be aware, ACT Health is currently undergoing a re-accreditation process against the 10 national safety and quality health service standards. All public and private hospitals in Australia undergo this important, rigorous process.
The re-accreditation process is part of a continuous cycle of improvement to ensure we deliver safe and high quality health care to Canberrans. It is an opportunity to identify areas for improvement that will make health services even better. As part of the accreditation process, the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards conducted an organisation-wide survey of ACT Health between 19 and 23 March 2018. During this survey, ACHS assessed ACT Health’s implementation of the national standards.
Under this assessment ACHS looked at 209 core criteria under the national standards for this important survey. While ACT Health met 176 of the core criteria, it unfortunately did not meet 33 under five of the national standards. Subsequently, the ACHS provided ACT Health with a period of 90 days to remediate those matters that did not meet the 33 core criteria.
ACT Health will be reassessed on its implementation of these not-met criteria through a process called an advanced completion survey. Two surveyors from ACHS will conduct this survey on site at Canberra Hospital and Health Services between 3 and 5 July 2018.
While this result is indeed disappointing, I have been given every confidence that ACT Health staff will rise to the challenge. I hear a lot from people in our community about the skilled and compassionate care they receive when accessing care and support from ACT Health. The dedication of staff-to-patient care is clear, and ACT Health will use this opportunity to ensure this dedication translates to all aspects of care provided in Canberra’s hospitals and health centres.
I think it is important to take this opportunity to acknowledge the governance issues that exist at ACT Health, as well as the government’s recent decision to separate ACT Health into two organisations. The decision to separate into two organisations was made prior to accreditation, although announced afterward.
Members would be aware that ACT Health is responding to unprecedented demand on health services in the ACT, and tackling challenges including increasing population, chronic disease, demands on infrastructure, a shift to activity-based funding and cuts to health funding from the commonwealth government. This provides some context to some of the pressures and change the ACT health system has been responding to in recent years, and indeed each and every day.
The government is taking steps to respond to these pressures through increasing resourcing in workforce, services and infrastructure investment. However, within the organisation itself, a clear and strong governance system is essential for the day to day running of the organisation as well as for the success and support of the ACT Health
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