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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 6 Hansard (22 June) . . Page.. 1643 ..


Intensive Care Unit - Recovery Costs

(Question No. 130)

Mr Stanhope asked the Minister for Health and Community Care, upon notice, on 20 April 1999:

In relation to the NSW Intensive Care Unit (ICU) recovery costs

1) How much do NSW ICU patients cost the ACT in real terms per patient per annum.

2) How much has the ACT (a) recovered from and (b) paid to NSW for ICU services over

I. the past three years; and

II. the year-to-date

3) Is the delivery of these cost-intensive services contributing to the significant budget blow-out at The Canberra Hospital

Mr Moore

: The answer to Mr Stanhope's question is:

(1) The cost of treatment of NSW patients who require intensive care as part of a hospital stay in the ACT is not a separate charging category within the hospitals and can not be fully costed with accuracy. There is data available on the number of hours for patients in critical care for both hospitals, and a NSW split has been identified for each of these.

Data on the number of NSW patient hours for 1997-98 is set out below:

NSW Intensive Care Unit

Patient Hours

The Canberra Hospital - Intensive Care Unit 28,010

The Canberra Hospital - Cardiac Care Unit 28,787

The Canberra Hospital - Neonatal Intensive Care Unit 25,099

Calvary Hospital 10,896

Under the purchasing arrangements between the Department of Health and Community Care and the two public hospitals, each hospital is paid a per diem. price, which is a price paid for each twenty four hours of care in the critical care setting. The AN-DRG weighting is then discounted to remove the critical care component which is paid for separately.

The per diem price for ICU is paid regardless of whether the patient is a resident of the ACT or NSW.


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