Page 2890 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013
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deal with. But the result was down comparative to last year. And 53 per cent really is not good enough and, as a jurisdiction, we wait longer in our EDs than any other jurisdiction.
In the quarterly health report for January to March 2013 we saw that, in terms of presentations to ED, only 51 per cent were seen on time. For category 4, which is semi-urgent, the figure was 46 per cent, and for category 3, disturbingly, only 42 per cent were seen on time. So we really do want to see improvements in that area.
One of the solutions that the government came up with was the walk-in centre—and this was discussed last week in terms of the effect of the walk-in centre and the fact that the government has promised that it will do certain things—but the research from the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute found that the evidence used in planning was ignored, was used selectively and was misinterpreted by ACT Health. I quote from that report:
Despite seeking out the evidence, this seems to have been used selectively and cautiously, at times misinterpreted, and largely influenced by the views of powerful interest groups. We conclude that this contributed to much of the evidence being lost in translation.
But what the report found was that the location of the walk-in centre resulted in a net increase in ED activity—certainly Professor Drew Richardson has concluded much the same—that the computer system or the software system was not helpful and that the way that the walk-in centre was being marketed was also problematic.
But as I have talked about before, the real problem I have here is that the minister said that the walk-in centre would do something that it would not. The evidence said it would not do what the government was saying. Strategic ED documentation, reviews, reports said it would not. The minister said in May 2009:
The Rudd Government … announced $10 million to establish a ‘walk-in centre’ … to help take pressure off its busy emergency department.
This is from a joint press release by the federal Minister for Health and the Deputy Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher:
Substantial work has gone in to developing this … model of care which aims to reduce pressures on other services such as emergency departments.
Again:
This growth is particularly positive in helping alleviate the pressures on our busy public hospital Emergency Departments.
The evidence from the National Health Service in terms of the reviews that were done of that system when the walk-in centre was planned for Canberra made it very clear that the walk-in centres co-located in hospitals were not nurse led, that there were doctors involved in that system. The result was that the minister was promising something for the walk-in centre that would deliver a result that she should have
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