Page 2501 - Week 07 - Monday, 15 August 2022
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Answers to questions
Health—elective surgery waiting lists
(Question No 771)
Ms Castley asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 6 May 2022:
(1) How many Canberrans are on waiting lists for an initial appointment for elective surgery in the ACT for each service.
(2) What is the median wait time for each list, each year since 2016.
(3) How many people from other states are on waiting lists for an initial appointment for elective surgery in the ACT for each service and what is the median wait time for each out of Territory patient on the list, each year since 2016.
(4) How many Canberrans have been added to wait lists each year for elective surgery in the ACT since 2016.
(5) What is the median wait time for Canberrans to be removed from waiting lists in the ACT for each category of elective surgery, each year since 2016.
(6) How many people from other states have been added to wait lists each year for elective surgery in the ACT since 2016.
(7) What is the median wait time for people from other states to be removed from waiting lists in the ACT for each category of elective surgery, each year since 2016
(8) What policies and actions have Canberra Health Services (CHS) and ACT Health taken since 2016 for (a) Canberrans and (b) people from other states, to improve median wait times and what success have they had.
(9) Can the Minister provide a breakdown of the total spending for each policy and action referred to in part (8) and how much is currently being spent on each policy/action.
(10) How many surgeons have been employed and/or have worked in hospitals by CHS and ACT Health, each year since 2016.
(11) Can the Minister provide information about the shortages of specialists for elective surgery including in what areas the shortages are and the figures.
Ms Stephen-Smith: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
1. Not all patients are on a list for an appointment for elective surgery. The conversion rate to surgery from referrals varies across specialties and triage categories and is as low as 25 percent for some groups. Patients are seen for initial appointments across a range of settings including public and private facilities and the ACT Government does not have visibility of settings beyond public health services.
As of 30 April 2022, there were 16,853 appointments for specialties that feed into the service that provides elective surgery at Canberra Health Services (CHS), but as above these will not all be for elective surgery.
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