❓ Mr. Simpson asks when bed availability information for country hospitals will be available online, following the release of metropolitan hospital data. Dr. Hames responds, announcing the data went live on April 1st and highlighting the website's popularity and benefits.
AnsweredQoN 279Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
HOSPITALS — BED AVAILABILITY DATA
Under the previous government, the health system and information on bed availability were shrouded in secrecy and hidden from the public. I note that the minister announced in February that information on bed availability for metropolitan hospitals was available online. When will that information about country hospitals be available online? Dr K.D. HAMES
Under the previous government, the health system and information on bed availability were shrouded in secrecy and hidden from the public. I note that the minister announced in February that information on bed availability for metropolitan hospitals was available online. When will that information about country hospitals be available online? Dr K.D. HAMES
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. I am pleased that it has come from our techno-guru. This website has been extremely popular. It is the first website in Australia—in fact, it is the first internationally—to provide details of what is happening at any one time in the emergency departments of our hospitals in the metropolitan area. People can access the website at any time and see how many people are waiting in an emergency department and what the average waiting time is and develop an idea of how long it will take to get treatment. Then they can make a choice about which hospital they will go to. It has been an extremely popular website. Since the website has come online, it has had 5 918 hits. What has impressed me is that when I attend functions in the community, ordinary people have said to me that it is a great website. One person said to me, “My son hurt himself the other day, so I got on the net, looked at what was happening at all the hospitals and worked out where I should go to get him fixed.” It is a great website for people who have an illness to work out which hospital to go to. The website has information that people could never get before—that is, how many beds are available in each hospital and what are the occupancy rates. It shows information that is not that great for our government, and not that great for the previous government, because it shows that the occupancy rates in some hospitals are at unacceptable levels of about 100 per cent. That is quite a common figure in the major tertiary hospitals, and we will need to work very hard to change that. Mr Speaker, you will be very pleased to know that the government is taking this out to the country regions. As of yesterday—I do not know why we did it on 1 April; it was not a joke—the information for country hospitals became available. People throughout Western Australia will have something that no-one else in the rest of Australia has—that is, access to what is happening in the emergency departments of our hospitals on any one day and the rate of bed occupancy in all our public hospitals in the state.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question. I am pleased that it has come from our techno-guru. This website has been extremely popular. It is the first website in Australia—in fact, it is the first internationally—to provide details of what is happening at any one time in the emergency departments of our hospitals in the metropolitan area. People can access the website at any time and see how many people are waiting in an emergency department and what the average waiting time is and develop an idea of how long it will take to get treatment. Then they can make a choice about which hospital they will go to. It has been an extremely popular website. Since the website has come online, it has had 5 918 hits. What has impressed me is that when I attend functions in the community, ordinary people have said to me that it is a great website. One person said to me, “My son hurt himself the other day, so I got on the net, looked at what was happening at all the hospitals and worked out where I should go to get him fixed.” It is a great website for people who have an illness to work out which hospital to go to. The website has information that people could never get before—that is, how many beds are available in each hospital and what are the occupancy rates. It shows information that is not that great for our government, and not that great for the previous government, because it shows that the occupancy rates in some hospitals are at unacceptable levels of about 100 per cent. That is quite a common figure in the major tertiary hospitals, and we will need to work very hard to change that. Mr Speaker, you will be very pleased to know that the government is taking this out to the country regions. As of yesterday—I do not know why we did it on 1 April; it was not a joke—the information for country hospitals became available. People throughout Western Australia will have something that no-one else in the rest of Australia has—that is, access to what is happening in the emergency departments of our hospitals on any one day and the rate of bed occupancy in all our public hospitals in the state.
I thank the member for the question. I am pleased that it has come from our techno-guru. This website has been extremely popular. It is the first website in Australia—in fact, it is the first internationally—to provide details of what is happening at any one time in the emergency departments of our hospitals in the metropolitan area. People can access the website at any time and see how many people are waiting in an emergency department and what the average waiting time is and develop an idea of how long it will take to get treatment. Then they can make a choice about which hospital they will go to. It has been an extremely popular website. Since the website has come online, it has had 5 918 hits. What has impressed me is that when I attend functions in the community, ordinary people have said to me that it is a great website. One person said to me, “My son hurt himself the other day, so I got on the net, looked at what was happening at all the hospitals and worked out where I should go to get him fixed.” It is a great website for people who have an illness to work out which hospital to go to. The website has information that people could never get before—that is, how many beds are available in each hospital and what are the occupancy rates. It shows information that is not that great for our government, and not that great for the previous government, because it shows that the occupancy rates in some hospitals are at unacceptable levels of about 100 per cent. That is quite a common figure in the major tertiary hospitals, and we will need to work very hard to change that. Mr Speaker, you will be very pleased to know that the government is taking this out to the country regions. As of yesterday—I do not know why we did it on 1 April; it was not a joke—the information for country hospitals became available. People throughout Western Australia will have something that no-one else in the rest of Australia has—that is, access to what is happening in the emergency departments of our hospitals on any one day and the rate of bed occupancy in all our public hospitals in the state.
Mr Speaker, you will be very pleased to know that the government is taking this out to the country regions. As of yesterday—I do not know why we did it on 1 April; it was not a joke—the information for country hospitals became available. People throughout Western Australia will have something that no-one else in the rest of Australia has—that is, access to what is happening in the emergency departments of our hospitals on any one day and the rate of bed occupancy in all our public hospitals in the state.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question. I am pleased that it has come from our techno-guru. This website has been extremely popular. It is the first website in Australia—in fact, it is the first internationally—to provide details of what is happening at any one time in the emergency departments of our hospitals in the metropolitan area. People can access the website at any time and see how many people are waiting in an emergency department and what the average waiting time is and develop an idea of how long it will take to get treatment. Then they can make a choice about which hospital they will go to. It has been an extremely popular website. Since the website has come online, it has had 5 918 hits. What has impressed me is that when I attend functions in the community, ordinary people have said to me that it is a great website. One person said to me, “My son hurt himself the other day, so I got on the net, looked at what was happening at all the hospitals and worked out where I should go to get him fixed.” It is a great website for people who have an illness to work out which hospital to go to. The website has information that people could never get before—that is, how many beds are available in each hospital and what are the occupancy rates. It shows information that is not that great for our government, and not that great for the previous government, because it shows that the occupancy rates in some hospitals are at unacceptable levels of about 100 per cent. That is quite a common figure in the major tertiary hospitals, and we will need to work very hard to change that. Mr Speaker, you will be very pleased to know that the government is taking this out to the country regions. As of yesterday—I do not know why we did it on 1 April; it was not a joke—the information for country hospitals became available. People throughout Western Australia will have something that no-one else in the rest of Australia has—that is, access to what is happening in the emergency departments of our hospitals on any one day and the rate of bed occupancy in all our public hospitals in the state.
I thank the member for the question. I am pleased that it has come from our techno-guru. This website has been extremely popular. It is the first website in Australia—in fact, it is the first internationally—to provide details of what is happening at any one time in the emergency departments of our hospitals in the metropolitan area. People can access the website at any time and see how many people are waiting in an emergency department and what the average waiting time is and develop an idea of how long it will take to get treatment. Then they can make a choice about which hospital they will go to. It has been an extremely popular website. Since the website has come online, it has had 5 918 hits. What has impressed me is that when I attend functions in the community, ordinary people have said to me that it is a great website. One person said to me, “My son hurt himself the other day, so I got on the net, looked at what was happening at all the hospitals and worked out where I should go to get him fixed.” It is a great website for people who have an illness to work out which hospital to go to. The website has information that people could never get before—that is, how many beds are available in each hospital and what are the occupancy rates. It shows information that is not that great for our government, and not that great for the previous government, because it shows that the occupancy rates in some hospitals are at unacceptable levels of about 100 per cent. That is quite a common figure in the major tertiary hospitals, and we will need to work very hard to change that. Mr Speaker, you will be very pleased to know that the government is taking this out to the country regions. As of yesterday—I do not know why we did it on 1 April; it was not a joke—the information for country hospitals became available. People throughout Western Australia will have something that no-one else in the rest of Australia has—that is, access to what is happening in the emergency departments of our hospitals on any one day and the rate of bed occupancy in all our public hospitals in the state.
Mr Speaker, you will be very pleased to know that the government is taking this out to the country regions. As of yesterday—I do not know why we did it on 1 April; it was not a joke—the information for country hospitals became available. People throughout Western Australia will have something that no-one else in the rest of Australia has—that is, access to what is happening in the emergency departments of our hospitals on any one day and the rate of bed occupancy in all our public hospitals in the state.
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