Page 3524 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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system that, during the quarter, overall treated more than 29,000 admitted patients, up two per cent, and supported almost 95,000 bed days across all three hospitals, including the University of Canberra Hospital.
This report includes patient feedback data because Health Care Consumers believe that that is important. Patient feedback is a true testament to our dedicated and hardworking staff who go above and beyond to ensure that our community have access to and receives the care they need. In 2018-19 Canberra Health Services received more than 4,400 consumer feedback items, and, of these, 64 per cent were compliments.
A recent inpatient experience survey at Calvary found that more than 90 per cent of patients reported a positive experience and were satisfied with the care provided, and a fourth quarter report that Mrs Dunne’s motion relates to, in large part for 2018-19, showed that more than 92 per cent of patients would recommend Canberra Hospital to family and friends, and more than 93 per cent of Calvary patients reported a positive experience and were satisfied with the care provided.
What Health Care Consumers have also told us is that quality and safety are important. What Mrs Dunne did not mention was all of the positive information that came out in this report, in that both Canberra Hospital and Calvary Public Hospital exceed their quality and safety benchmarks on almost all benchmarks, with the exception of Calvary Public Hospital’s estimated hand hygiene rate, which is very slightly below benchmark. Other than that, the hospitals perform very well, including on important things like the number of patients per 1,000 occupied bed days who acquire a SAB infection, which is significantly below target for both hospitals.
It is important to acknowledge the good things, and the successes of our health system, which, as Mrs Dunne acknowledged, can be attributed to the dedication and professionalism of our medical, nursing, allied health support services and administrative staff right across the system. Our staff work tirelessly to deliver health services around the clock, and I would like to take this opportunity again to express my thanks and gratitude for the important work they do every day.
While we will come to emergency, this work is also reflected in the positive data we have seen in relation to elective surgery in the latest quarterly performance report. Again I note that Mrs Dunne did not mention it, because it is good news. There was an 18 per cent increase in elective surgeries in the quarter, compared to the previous quarter, and Health Services exceeded its target of 14,000 elective surgeries in 2018-19, a record for the ACT. There was a reduction of nine per cent in the number of overdue patients waiting for surgery and four per cent overall in the number of patients waiting for elective surgery.
The focus on patients needing urgent elective surgery did see a slight reduction in the median waiting times for urgent patients and a slight increase in the waiting times for semi-urgent and non-urgent. The 2019-20 budget has continued our investment in elective surgery, with a target of 14,250 surgeries to be performed in 2019-20. Those investments include two new theatres being commissioned at Calvary and an expansion of Calvary’s urology service to meet growing demand, with four staff,
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