Page 972 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
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included a new multidisciplinary approach to the initial assessment of patients, enabling care to commence as quickly as possible through both early clinician engagement and expanded nurse protocols. Work is also underway to streamline admission processes into wards across the hospital and sharpen the focus across all divisions on admitting patients from ED, in addition to more timely diagnostics and support services.
While the hospital has been required to focus on its response to COVID-19 over the last two months, many of these measures are still being pursued, and we continue to keep a close eye on emergency department performance. It is part of my regular conversations with Canberra Health Services.
MR COE: Minister, what is the trajectory for emergency department presentations for this winter, especially if winter sports and other activities are not taking place as they have in previous years?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Coe for the supplementary question. I hesitate to make any predictions while we are in this COVID-19 situation. We have seen a very rapidly evolving and very quickly changing situation over the last couple of months. We would not have thought six or eight weeks ago that we would be in the situation we are today.
What I can say about emergency department presentations at the moment is that those presentations have been down. That is probably in part due to people undertaking physical distancing and not undertaking sport, as Mr Coe said—so not having some of those accidents that you might have—but also probably, and concerningly, reflecting people’s reluctance to attend the emergency department when maybe in fact they should do so. We have been regularly seeking to encourage people who do need to access health care—whether that is through the emergency department, a walk-in centre or their general practitioner—to please go and get the health care that they need. Our healthcare system is a safe place to be, and we definitely want people to be getting that routine health care that they need. We will continue to monitor what we see in terms of both demand and performance in the emergency departments across both of our hospitals.
Hospitals—performance data
MR WALL: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, the health quarterly performance report for the second quarter was due to be released at the beginning of March. It was released in April, around Anzac Day. When did your office first receive a copy of the quarterly performance report for the second quarter of 2019-20?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I will take the question on notice, as to the exact day that I received it, but it was not long before it was released.
MR WALL: Minister, if it was not delivered to your office until just prior to its release, why was the report delivered so late?
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