❓ The Minister for Health provides an update on elective surgery waitlists, highlighting improvements in reducing the number of patients waiting longer than clinically recommended and increased surgical output.
AnsweredQoN 111Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ELECTIVE SURGERY WAITLIST
111. Mr I.M. BRITZA to the
Minister for Health:
Could the Minister for Health please update the house on how
the Liberal–National government is assisting patients on the state's
elective surgery waiting list, particularly those who have waited longer than
is clinically recommended?
111. Mr I.M. BRITZA to the
Minister for Health:
Could the Minister for Health please update the house on how
the Liberal–National government is assisting patients on the state's
elective surgery waiting list, particularly those who have waited longer than
is clinically recommended?
AnswerView source ↗
Absolutely I can give the member some information on that,
and I am surprised to know that he is so well versed on this issue—so
well done!
The issue of waiting lists has long been a troublesome
problem for ministers over successive governments. I know from being in
government previously, and in the last government, it was always a struggle to
try to get those numbers of patients waiting for surgery to have their surgery
within the appropriate time. There was always a list of people who were outside
the boundary, so we had three recommended time frames—categories 1, 2
and 3, each depending on urgency. The time frames were 30 days for category 1,
90 days for category 2 and up to a year for category 3. But there were always
patients outside that who did not get their surgery within the appropriate
time. I know that the former Labor government worked very hard at this, and the
former Minister for Health, during his time in government, improved the numbers
of those who were not outside of boundary from 68 per cent back in 2006—I
do not have figures previous to that—to about 86 per cent when the
Labor Party lost government. When we got into government, we tried to continue
that trend, but it was difficult because we brought in the four-hour rule to
stop the huge queues of patients stuck in emergency departments, desperately
waiting for a bed, under the former government. These were the things that led
to headlines about the hospital system being in crisis over and over again. We
were determined to fix that problem—and we have, by bringing in the
four-hour rule. That put pressure on our waiting lists for surgery and the
people feeding through, because there are only so many theatres available and
so much capacity in the system to feed it through. We held that figure for a
long period. It was roughly 86 per cent when we came to government, through to
about 87 per cent by 2010, and we worked it up to 89 per cent. That is 89 per
cent of all people waiting for surgery having it done within the appropriate
time—that is, 11 per cent were not; 11 per cent were waiting too long.
Over the last two years, we have got that figure up. Our staff have really hit
their straps. They have the application of the four-hour rule getting better
and better, and they have got up to 98.2 per cent of people having their
surgery done within the appropriate time.
Just to give members some idea of the number of patients over
boundary, it was something in the order of 2 000 to 3 000 in the early years of
the last Labor government. From recollection, there were about 2 500 category 2
patients waiting too long. Now we have gone from 800 over boundary last year to
only 462 people in total who are over boundary for their surgery. Normally
there are reasons for that—say, a category 1 patient who needed urgent
surgery, but something else happened, such as they had a heart attack or their
diabetes got out of control, and they could not have their surgery within the
appropriate time. Over the last year, we have done 1 717 more cases of surgery
than was the case last year, and our figures for the three categories are 97.2 per
cent for category 1, 94.8 per cent for category 2, and 98.7 per cent for category
3, which is a remarkable turnaround from what was the case in the early years
of our government. I am very proud of all of our staff, who have worked
exceptionally hard to bring in the four-hour rule and to get rid of those long
queues of patients waiting in EDs, and at the same time have got all this
additional surgery done so that people are not waiting beyond an acceptable
time for their surgery.
and I am surprised to know that he is so well versed on this issue—so
well done!
The issue of waiting lists has long been a troublesome
problem for ministers over successive governments. I know from being in
government previously, and in the last government, it was always a struggle to
try to get those numbers of patients waiting for surgery to have their surgery
within the appropriate time. There was always a list of people who were outside
the boundary, so we had three recommended time frames—categories 1, 2
and 3, each depending on urgency. The time frames were 30 days for category 1,
90 days for category 2 and up to a year for category 3. But there were always
patients outside that who did not get their surgery within the appropriate
time. I know that the former Labor government worked very hard at this, and the
former Minister for Health, during his time in government, improved the numbers
of those who were not outside of boundary from 68 per cent back in 2006—I
do not have figures previous to that—to about 86 per cent when the
Labor Party lost government. When we got into government, we tried to continue
that trend, but it was difficult because we brought in the four-hour rule to
stop the huge queues of patients stuck in emergency departments, desperately
waiting for a bed, under the former government. These were the things that led
to headlines about the hospital system being in crisis over and over again. We
were determined to fix that problem—and we have, by bringing in the
four-hour rule. That put pressure on our waiting lists for surgery and the
people feeding through, because there are only so many theatres available and
so much capacity in the system to feed it through. We held that figure for a
long period. It was roughly 86 per cent when we came to government, through to
about 87 per cent by 2010, and we worked it up to 89 per cent. That is 89 per
cent of all people waiting for surgery having it done within the appropriate
time—that is, 11 per cent were not; 11 per cent were waiting too long.
Over the last two years, we have got that figure up. Our staff have really hit
their straps. They have the application of the four-hour rule getting better
and better, and they have got up to 98.2 per cent of people having their
surgery done within the appropriate time.
Just to give members some idea of the number of patients over
boundary, it was something in the order of 2 000 to 3 000 in the early years of
the last Labor government. From recollection, there were about 2 500 category 2
patients waiting too long. Now we have gone from 800 over boundary last year to
only 462 people in total who are over boundary for their surgery. Normally
there are reasons for that—say, a category 1 patient who needed urgent
surgery, but something else happened, such as they had a heart attack or their
diabetes got out of control, and they could not have their surgery within the
appropriate time. Over the last year, we have done 1 717 more cases of surgery
than was the case last year, and our figures for the three categories are 97.2 per
cent for category 1, 94.8 per cent for category 2, and 98.7 per cent for category
3, which is a remarkable turnaround from what was the case in the early years
of our government. I am very proud of all of our staff, who have worked
exceptionally hard to bring in the four-hour rule and to get rid of those long
queues of patients waiting in EDs, and at the same time have got all this
additional surgery done so that people are not waiting beyond an acceptable
time for their surgery.
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