❓ Mr L'Estrange questions the Minister for Health about a significant increase in elective surgery waitlists and failures to meet recommended timeframes. The Minister attributes the issue to shifts in private health insurance usage and outlines efforts to address the backlog.
AnsweredQoN 576Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ELECTIVE SURGERY
WAITLIST — JULY REPORT
576. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Minister for Health:
The July 2018 elective surgery
waitlist data has blown out by 10.8 per cent when compared with the July 2017 data,
to an astonishing 23 464 people who are waiting to receive surgery. The number
of people failing to receive surgery during the recommended period has
increased by 28.6 per cent. What is the minister doing to reduce pressure on
our public hospitals so that people can receive their surgery in the recommended
time?
WAITLIST — JULY REPORT
576. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Minister for Health:
The July 2018 elective surgery
waitlist data has blown out by 10.8 per cent when compared with the July 2017 data,
to an astonishing 23 464 people who are waiting to receive surgery. The number
of people failing to receive surgery during the recommended period has
increased by 28.6 per cent. What is the minister doing to reduce pressure on
our public hospitals so that people can receive their surgery in the recommended
time?
AnswerView source ↗
We continue to provide outstanding
service for people in Western Australia who require surgery, and we are all
very proud of that. It is true to say that two issues are impacting on the
public health system. The first is that more people are holding on to their
private health insurance and not utilising it; that is, they go to a public
hospital for surgery. What they might do in that context is to utilise their
private health insurance, but then, of course, they do not have a gap to pay.
That assists us in terms of revenue. We are under a lot of pressure at the
moment to make sure that we maximise our revenue. The other aspect is that a lot
of people are abandoning their private health insurance. That impact is associated
with the general economic climate but also with the fact that, quite frankly,
private health insurance is just not as competitive as it used to be. That is
why we are seeing the current exodus from private health insurance. That is
obviously a national problem and one around which we expect the commonwealth
government to make some changes. We are the victims of that. As a result, our
public health system is under pressure. However, we are continuing to do a record
number of operations and we are continuing to get to the vast majority of
patients within the clinically available time. We are getting to around 94 per
cent of all patients within the clinically defined time frames, which is
something we should all be very proud about. I am very pleased about that. The
six or so per cent beyond that whom we are not getting to within clinical
boundaries is a concern. Those people are waiting longer. That is something we
need to get on top of as well. I spoke to the director general as recently as
yesterday. He is meeting with his chief executives to talk about what extra
efforts can be made to get the Western Australia elective services target
statistics down. It is a challenge. The private hospital system is encountering
lean times. Our friends at Ramsay Health Care, St John of God Health Care and
Healthscope are complaining that they do not have enough work to do. Our public
health system is encountering boom times, for want of a better description. We
would dearly love to see more of those patients accommodated in our private
hospital system.
service for people in Western Australia who require surgery, and we are all
very proud of that. It is true to say that two issues are impacting on the
public health system. The first is that more people are holding on to their
private health insurance and not utilising it; that is, they go to a public
hospital for surgery. What they might do in that context is to utilise their
private health insurance, but then, of course, they do not have a gap to pay.
That assists us in terms of revenue. We are under a lot of pressure at the
moment to make sure that we maximise our revenue. The other aspect is that a lot
of people are abandoning their private health insurance. That impact is associated
with the general economic climate but also with the fact that, quite frankly,
private health insurance is just not as competitive as it used to be. That is
why we are seeing the current exodus from private health insurance. That is
obviously a national problem and one around which we expect the commonwealth
government to make some changes. We are the victims of that. As a result, our
public health system is under pressure. However, we are continuing to do a record
number of operations and we are continuing to get to the vast majority of
patients within the clinically available time. We are getting to around 94 per
cent of all patients within the clinically defined time frames, which is
something we should all be very proud about. I am very pleased about that. The
six or so per cent beyond that whom we are not getting to within clinical
boundaries is a concern. Those people are waiting longer. That is something we
need to get on top of as well. I spoke to the director general as recently as
yesterday. He is meeting with his chief executives to talk about what extra
efforts can be made to get the Western Australia elective services target
statistics down. It is a challenge. The private hospital system is encountering
lean times. Our friends at Ramsay Health Care, St John of God Health Care and
Healthscope are complaining that they do not have enough work to do. Our public
health system is encountering boom times, for want of a better description. We
would dearly love to see more of those patients accommodated in our private
hospital system.
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