Page 306 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 9 February 2021

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The Assembly voted—

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

Sitting suspended from 11.40 am to 2.00 pm.

Questions without notice

Hospitals—emergency department performance

MS LEE: My question is to the Minister for Health. In January the latest Report on Government Services was released, showing that just 48 per cent of emergency department patients were seen on time in ACT hospitals, the worst result in Australia.

In response, you told the ABC:

… our target—and the national target—is 70 per cent. We are nowhere near that at this point in time. We want to get to that target within nine months.

Minister, if by the end of October 2021 the target of 70 per cent of all ED patients seen on time is not met, what will be the consequences for you and your government, and, more importantly, the Canberra public?

MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. She is, as some in the media have done, conflating two issues. The 70 per cent target that I was talking about is what is called the NEAT—the number of people who are seen within the emergency department and either admitted to the hospital or discharged to home within four hours. It is one of the national measurements in relation to the performance of emergency departments.

Of course, there is a relationship between the people who are seen and have their treatments started within clinically recommended times and the speed with which people are seen in the emergency department and either then discharged to home or admitted into the hospital.

With that clarification, I have been having a lot of conversations with Canberra Health Services, as I have talked about in this place many times over the last 18 months,

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