Page 2237 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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health system. For example, more than 1,000 kids are waiting up to 606 days to see an ear, nose and throat specialist, with 3,700 children facing long waits to see a specialist. The median wait time to see a dermatologist was four years, while it was three years to see a urologist. Why are some 3,700 children waiting so long to see a specialist?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Kikkert for the question. Some of the wait times across paediatric services certainly are concerning and disappointing, and that is why Canberra Health Services is working very hard on several initiatives and plans to improve those. That includes additional resources, recruitment and implementing new processes and strategies to better meet demand for paediatric services.
As you would be aware, Madam Speaker, the delivery of paediatric services is a complex mix of public and private and local and interstate services, but some of those wait times are actually the result of the introduction of new services. For example, in gastroenterology, Canberra Health Services put on a new paediatric gastroenterologist about 12 months ago. That service is taking demand that would have previously been referred interstate, which is good for Canberra kids, but it does mean that there is then a demand for a service that did not previously come under those wait times because those would have been services previously provided interstate.
It is a challenge for our community that, with a population base of fewer than 450,000 people, not all paediatric specialist services can be provided in the ACT. For those that are, it is sometimes a challenge to recruit paediatric specialists. We know that, with the retirement of a couple of paediatricians, there is some recruitment going on, and that will continue.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, why does the ACT health system so severely disadvantage low income families?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I am not quite sure to what Mrs Kikkert is referring or whether she has any evidence in relation to that.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, what is the risk that children on the waiting list, waiting a long time to see a specialist, will face worse health outcomes as a result of their wait?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Dunne for the supplementary but, as she well knows, there is a triage system for both outpatients and surgery. People who are on the wait list are advised that if their condition appears to be worsening, or if they are concerned, to go back to their general practitioner and to seek a new referral, if that is looking like a threat for those people and their condition.
We are also working with general practitioners and through the Capital Health Network to improve referral pathways between general practitioners. As you would be aware, Madam Speaker, some general practitioners have sub-specialties, so there is work going on across primary practice to enable general practitioners to refer to one another as well as to refer to specialists and also to better understand what the referral pathways might look like in using allied health as well as specialist appointments. So there is a wide range of work going on to address these issues.
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