Page 3855 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 4 December 2007
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the 2007-08 budget for an additional 300 elective surgery procedures. The tenth operating theatre at the Canberra Hospital will be fully operational for the first time in 2007-08 to assist in meeting the increased demand for both additional emergency and elective surgery.
The number of people who have had their elective surgery cancelled has been cut by almost 50 per cent during a period of increased demand for surgery. There has been a nine per cent increase in emergency surgery being performed at the Canberra Hospital and still we have halved the cancellation rate for elective surgery. That is not an insignificant achievement.
These achievements have been delivered by the staff in our hospitals who work every day. Mrs Burke sits there and snipes and underestimates the achievements that I am reading out. These achievements are in recognition of the staff in the hospitals who deliver this every single day, and you sit there and snipe at them. We did not perform 9,326 operations; the doctors and nurses did. This answer actually deserves encouragement from those opposite. (Time expired.)
MS MacDONALD: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Minister, could you provide details of any further excellent achievements?
MS GALLAGHER: I can continue with a whole range of further achievements. Bed occupancy is down. Most national and international advice on bed occupancy suggests that an occupancy rate of between 85 and 90 per cent provides for the optimum for maximising access to care and efficiency in hospitals. Just two years ago, our hospitals were reporting bed occupancy levels for overnight hospital beds of 97 per cent. In 2006-07 our hospitals averaged a bed occupancy rate of 91 per cent.
This considerable improvement over the last two years also shows up in the improved access block figures reported over the last few years. The result for the first quarter of 2007-08 was 90 per cent—right on the government’s target for this year, which is three per cent below the target set for 2006-07.
There are more beds. The reduction in the bed occupancy rate is just one measure that demonstrates the improvements in access to care possible due to the funding of an additional 147 beds for our hospital system over the past four years. These beds comprise an additional 60 general ward beds to meet the increased demand for inpatient services, particularly referrals from our emergency departments; and 51 additional beds as part of the new sub and non-acute service, which as I said earlier provides a better care environment for older people who need those services.
They also include 17 observation units next to our emergency departments, which provide emergency department physicians with the capacity to monitor patients while freeing up emergency department resources for more acutely ill patients; 15 community-based intermittent care beds that free up acute hospital resources while providing a better care environment for older people between hospital and home or community care; and four additional intensive care unit beds at the Canberra Hospital over the past two years, which has increased the capacity of that unit by 40 per cent—a 40 per cent increase in intensive care beds.
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