Page 2674 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 15 August 2017
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MR COE: Is there any publicly available data or evidence to demonstrate that Canberra Hospital emergency waiting times are coming down? Will you table any further data or evidence that you have access to to support that claim?
MS FITZHARRIS: I certainly know that on the ACT Health website there is live information about the number of people currently presenting to the emergency department, broken down by those waiting to have treatment and those currently receiving treatment over the past 24-hour period. That is available to all members of the public right now—
Mr Coe: Is that times, or just—
MS FITZHARRIS: It does not include waiting times. But, as I have said, I will continue to deliver quarterly updates to the Assembly on the progress of the data review in ACT Health. I look forward to making the next quarterly update in the September sittings, when I will be informing the Assembly and the community about how we continue to report ACT Health data while the data review is underway.
MR COE: I wish to raise a point of order, Madam Acting Speaker, on relevance. I asked about what evidence was available with regard to waiting times coming down, which is distinct from just number of people who present.
MADAM ACTING SPEAKER: Standing order 118 does require that you be directly relevant, so can you be directly relevant to Mr Coe’s question, Ms Fitzharris?
MS FITZHARRIS: Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker. I have completed my answer.
MRS JONES: Minister, will ACT Health be able to provide accurate data to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on emergency department waiting times by the next reporting deadline?
MS FITZHARRIS: I thank Mrs Jones for the supplementary. She may like to clarify “by the next reporting deadline”. What I have said in my previous answer, and what I also said in my previous update on the data review, is that I will continue to give quarterly updates to the Assembly on the progress of that review.
I have also established a panel to oversee the progress of that review. That panel, as I have stated a number of times in the Assembly, includes senior representatives from the National Health Funding Body and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. They are sitting on the panel overseeing the ACT Health data review. We remain in very close contact with both of those organisations regarding their requirements for us to report.
In my next update to the Assembly in the next sitting period, in September, I will be providing further information that is currently being developed by ACT Health and by the data review panel on how we can provide reporting while the data review is underway because, as we know, that does not finish until early next year.
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