Page 2859 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
surgery within 90 days. We are seeing improvements there of around 42 days quicker access to elective surgery than at the same time last year.
Mrs Dunne: Which is how long?
MS GALLAGHER: Ninety-four days, which is just outside the 90-day criteria for category 2 patients. There are very big improvements there.
For category 3 patients, where surgery is desirable with the year, the median waiting time this year is 176 days. Again, that is well within the criteria and is 68 days better than at this time last year. Despite the criticisms we are getting from the opposition, all the indications show that the waiting lists are trending down, that people are having access to their surgery faster than ever before and that more surgery is being performed than ever before—in fact, 1,400 more operations in the last financial year than four years ago.
The comment Mr Stefaniak made was that it was the seventh health plan. It is not quite that. In my media release, I indicated a range of measures which we were looking at to improve the waiting list for a particular type of patient—those patients in categories 2 and 3 who are waiting too long to get access to their surgery. They are longer than the desirable time—longer than the 90 days and, in some instances, longer than the year. It is in that context that I have had discussions with the department of health about how we manage that particular type of patient. For the most part, patients are getting access to their surgery and access to it faster than ever before.
Some of this is about the criteria for management of the waiting list. They are discussions I need to have with the surgical specialists. I am arranging that meeting very soon. In fact, in the next couple of weeks, I will be meeting them to talk through ideas they have for improvements and exploring options for contracting out some services. We have already done that a bit this year. I think there were 50 operations; it might have been a bit more. Fifty low-cost, low-acuity procedures were performed by private providers. Those procedures could be delivered faster than we were going to be able to do them.
Discussions on role delineations between TCH and Calvary are ongoing with Calvary. Naturally, Calvary does a lot of our elective surgery. We are discussing with Calvary about where there is an opportunity to increase the work that they do and, therefore, reduce cancellations and times for people who are waiting for too long. That is the particular type of patient. I am looking at specifically managing these patients within the broader context of patients waiting for elective surgery.
We have commissioned an extra theatre. We have extended the operating theatre times by an hour. I will be discussing any further reforms and improvements we can make with the surgical specialists when I meet with them at a time to be organised soon. All in all, if we put those measures together, we will see improvements for this particular group of patients. At the moment they are not getting access to their surgery quickly enough.
MR STEFANIAK: I thank the minister for that, Mr Speaker. I have a supplementary question. Minister, how long will it take for the people on the waiting list you describe to see some outcomes from this latest list of requests?
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .