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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (22 April) . . Page.. 1273 ..

TCH has recently signed a Purchase Contract variation with the Department of Health and Community Care in which the Department purchased an additional 650 cost weighted elective surgical separations in the areas of orthopaedics, vascular surgery and neurosurgery. It is not possible at this time to specify how many individuals on the waiting list this equates to as the cost weighting for each separation depends on the type of procedure to be undertaken. This additional throughput will be targeted at long wait patients. It is hoped that this will have a downwards influence on the waiting list.

Other initiatives at TCH such as Day of Surgery Admission (DOSA) and the recent recruitment of a staff specialist in Urology should also impact on the waiting list.

Other administrative changes do and have occurred which also have artificially affected the reported numbers on the list. TCH's policy is to comply with the AIHW's National Health Data Dictionary in relation to the classification and reporting of waiting lists and waiting times. There is also a clause in the Purchase Agreement with the Department of Health and Community Care in relation to compliance with the AIHW definitions.

(4) The level of detail requested in this question was not collected as part of this audit, although some of the individuals did volunteer some information. Reasons given included that the surgery had been done elsewhere (including interstate) or that it was no longer required. Only one individual was removed where the death of the individual was the cause. It is not possible to make the assumption that the death was due to the condition that the individual was on the waiting list for.

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