Page 3460 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 September 2019
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Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders—emergency treatment
MR MILLIGAN: My question is to the Minister for Health and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. What proportion of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who present to an emergency department with a condition that required urgent treatment were treated within a clinically appropriate time in 2018-19?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I will take that question on notice. Thank you, Mr Milligan, for the question.
MR MILLIGAN: Given that that question has been taken on notice, maybe this question could also be taken on notice: how does the figure, when you find out, compare with the national average for timely treatment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients who require attention urgently?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Milligan for the supplementary question. I think the timely treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are treated in our emergency department will be related, obviously, to the treatment of the general population in terms of timeliness for those who appear in our emergency department. The opposition is well aware that the quarterly report released on Friday indicated that we were not meeting some of our timeliness targets in relation to those figures.
As I pointed out in releasing that report, comparing our health system, particularly our emergency department, with interjurisdictional or national systems is not an apples-with-apples comparison. That is because our system does not just treat all ACT residents; it treats the sickest people from the surrounding regions.
Out patient load is one of significantly greater complexity than a comparison with a whole jurisdiction elsewhere, and I think we can see this in the emergency department figures for 2018-19. When we compare them with 2017-18 not only do we see an increase in emergency department presentations across the hospital system to more than 149,000 presentations in 2018-19 but what we see is a significant increase in category 1, category 2 and category 3 patients. But we saw a decrease in semi-urgent and non-urgent patients, which I think speaks to the fact that Canberrans are understanding that if it is a non-urgent matter they have alternatives like our fantastic network of nurse-led walk-in centres. But it does not mean a higher level of acuity in our emergency department.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, I presume you will take this on notice as well. How does the figure for members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community who present to emergencies with a condition requiring urgent treatment compare with the ACT average of all people requiring urgent treatment?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Dunne but I confirm that I will, indeed, take that question on notice.
Mrs Dunne interjecting—
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