❓ The Minister for Health outlines initiatives to free up public hospital beds, including securing 150 beds in the residential sector for patients awaiting aged care or subacute care, aiming to reduce elective surgery wait times and ease pressure on emergency departments.
AnsweredQoN 115Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
PUBLIC HOSPITAL BEDS
Can the minister please outline what is being done to free up more beds in public hospitals and what effect this is going to have? Mr J.A. McGINTY
Can the minister please outline what is being done to free up more beds in public hospitals and what effect this is going to have? Mr J.A. McGINTY
AnswerView source ↗
Members will have seen on the television news on Sunday night the most pleasing recent figures about the reduction in the number of people on the elective surgery waiting lists to a historic all-time low of about 14 000 people, which is a very significant achievement by the doctors, nurses and hospital administrators who work in this area. More importantly, they will have seen a very significant reduction in the time that people wait for their surgery, down from about five months when the opposition was last in power to about three months now. People in Western Australia know that they are waiting less time and that there are fewer people waiting for surgery in Western Australia. We also have an objective that by July this year we will ensure that not one single patient waits longer than 12 months for his surgery. Obviously, urgent cases will be dealt with expeditiously. I advise the house that we are determined to drive down the list so that the days of, particularly, elderly people waiting for hip and knee replacements - they often used to wait for years - is well and truly a thing of the past. In order to drive that even further we have been involved in negotiations to secure 150 beds outside the acute hospital sector in the residential sector to transfer people who are either occupying an acute bed while waiting for an aged care placement - that is, a bed, which is the responsibility of the commonwealth government and a responsibility that it is not living up to very well, which is causing repercussions in our public hospital system - or who are subacute patients. Creating an additional 150 beds in our public hospital system will allow us to treat 18 000 additional patients in a year in acute beds in acute public hospitals. Eighteen thousand extra patients each year will be able to be treated as a result of freeing up those 150 beds. The cost is approximately $20 million. It is a cost that should be borne by the commonwealth rather than by the state. We will be putting a fence around 30 per cent of those beds and dedicating them to surgery so that there will be no excuse for hospitals to cancel surgery because of a shortage of beds. In particular, we will make sure that we use the availability of 30 per cent of those beds to do more elective surgery. That will very much complement the work being done at the two new surgicentres, at Osborne Park Hospital and Kaleeya Hospital, which service north and south of the river respectively. The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: Members will have seen on the television news on Sunday night the most pleasing recent figures about the reduction in the number of people on the elective surgery waiting lists to a historic all-time low of about 14 000 people, which is a very significant achievement by the doctors, nurses and hospital administrators who work in this area. More importantly, they will have seen a very significant reduction in the time that people wait for their surgery, down from about five months when the opposition was last in power to about three months now. People in Western Australia know that they are waiting less time and that there are fewer people waiting for surgery in Western Australia. We also have an objective that by July this year we will ensure that not one single patient waits longer than 12 months for his surgery. Obviously, urgent cases will be dealt with expeditiously. I advise the house that we are determined to drive down the list so that the days of, particularly, elderly people waiting for hip and knee replacements - they often used to wait for years - is well and truly a thing of the past. In order to drive that even further we have been involved in negotiations to secure 150 beds outside the acute hospital sector in the residential sector to transfer people who are either occupying an acute bed while waiting for an aged care placement - that is, a bed, which is the responsibility of the commonwealth government and a responsibility that it is not living up to very well, which is causing repercussions in our public hospital system - or who are subacute patients. Creating an additional 150 beds in our public hospital system will allow us to treat 18 000 additional patients in a year in acute beds in acute public hospitals. Eighteen thousand extra patients each year will be able to be treated as a result of freeing up those 150 beds. The cost is approximately $20 million. It is a cost that should be borne by the commonwealth rather than by the state. We will be putting a fence around 30 per cent of those beds and dedicating them to surgery so that there will be no excuse for hospitals to cancel surgery because of a shortage of beds. In particular, we will make sure that we use the availability of 30 per cent of those beds to do more elective surgery. That will very much complement the work being done at the two new surgicentres, at Osborne Park Hospital and Kaleeya Hospital, which service north and south of the river respectively. The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
Members will have seen on the television news on Sunday night the most pleasing recent figures about the reduction in the number of people on the elective surgery waiting lists to a historic all-time low of about 14 000 people, which is a very significant achievement by the doctors, nurses and hospital administrators who work in this area. More importantly, they will have seen a very significant reduction in the time that people wait for their surgery, down from about five months when the opposition was last in power to about three months now. People in Western Australia know that they are waiting less time and that there are fewer people waiting for surgery in Western Australia. We also have an objective that by July this year we will ensure that not one single patient waits longer than 12 months for his surgery. Obviously, urgent cases will be dealt with expeditiously. I advise the house that we are determined to drive down the list so that the days of, particularly, elderly people waiting for hip and knee replacements - they often used to wait for years - is well and truly a thing of the past. In order to drive that even further we have been involved in negotiations to secure 150 beds outside the acute hospital sector in the residential sector to transfer people who are either occupying an acute bed while waiting for an aged care placement - that is, a bed, which is the responsibility of the commonwealth government and a responsibility that it is not living up to very well, which is causing repercussions in our public hospital system - or who are subacute patients. Creating an additional 150 beds in our public hospital system will allow us to treat 18 000 additional patients in a year in acute beds in acute public hospitals. Eighteen thousand extra patients each year will be able to be treated as a result of freeing up those 150 beds. The cost is approximately $20 million. It is a cost that should be borne by the commonwealth rather than by the state. We will be putting a fence around 30 per cent of those beds and dedicating them to surgery so that there will be no excuse for hospitals to cancel surgery because of a shortage of beds. In particular, we will make sure that we use the availability of 30 per cent of those beds to do more elective surgery. That will very much complement the work being done at the two new surgicentres, at Osborne Park Hospital and Kaleeya Hospital, which service north and south of the river respectively. The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
In order to drive that even further we have been involved in negotiations to secure 150 beds outside the acute hospital sector in the residential sector to transfer people who are either occupying an acute bed while waiting for an aged care placement - that is, a bed, which is the responsibility of the commonwealth government and a responsibility that it is not living up to very well, which is causing repercussions in our public hospital system - or who are subacute patients. Creating an additional 150 beds in our public hospital system will allow us to treat 18 000 additional patients in a year in acute beds in acute public hospitals. Eighteen thousand extra patients each year will be able to be treated as a result of freeing up those 150 beds. The cost is approximately $20 million. It is a cost that should be borne by the commonwealth rather than by the state. We will be putting a fence around 30 per cent of those beds and dedicating them to surgery so that there will be no excuse for hospitals to cancel surgery because of a shortage of beds. In particular, we will make sure that we use the availability of 30 per cent of those beds to do more elective surgery. That will very much complement the work being done at the two new surgicentres, at Osborne Park Hospital and Kaleeya Hospital, which service north and south of the river respectively. The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: Members will have seen on the television news on Sunday night the most pleasing recent figures about the reduction in the number of people on the elective surgery waiting lists to a historic all-time low of about 14 000 people, which is a very significant achievement by the doctors, nurses and hospital administrators who work in this area. More importantly, they will have seen a very significant reduction in the time that people wait for their surgery, down from about five months when the opposition was last in power to about three months now. People in Western Australia know that they are waiting less time and that there are fewer people waiting for surgery in Western Australia. We also have an objective that by July this year we will ensure that not one single patient waits longer than 12 months for his surgery. Obviously, urgent cases will be dealt with expeditiously. I advise the house that we are determined to drive down the list so that the days of, particularly, elderly people waiting for hip and knee replacements - they often used to wait for years - is well and truly a thing of the past. In order to drive that even further we have been involved in negotiations to secure 150 beds outside the acute hospital sector in the residential sector to transfer people who are either occupying an acute bed while waiting for an aged care placement - that is, a bed, which is the responsibility of the commonwealth government and a responsibility that it is not living up to very well, which is causing repercussions in our public hospital system - or who are subacute patients. Creating an additional 150 beds in our public hospital system will allow us to treat 18 000 additional patients in a year in acute beds in acute public hospitals. Eighteen thousand extra patients each year will be able to be treated as a result of freeing up those 150 beds. The cost is approximately $20 million. It is a cost that should be borne by the commonwealth rather than by the state. We will be putting a fence around 30 per cent of those beds and dedicating them to surgery so that there will be no excuse for hospitals to cancel surgery because of a shortage of beds. In particular, we will make sure that we use the availability of 30 per cent of those beds to do more elective surgery. That will very much complement the work being done at the two new surgicentres, at Osborne Park Hospital and Kaleeya Hospital, which service north and south of the river respectively. The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
Members will have seen on the television news on Sunday night the most pleasing recent figures about the reduction in the number of people on the elective surgery waiting lists to a historic all-time low of about 14 000 people, which is a very significant achievement by the doctors, nurses and hospital administrators who work in this area. More importantly, they will have seen a very significant reduction in the time that people wait for their surgery, down from about five months when the opposition was last in power to about three months now. People in Western Australia know that they are waiting less time and that there are fewer people waiting for surgery in Western Australia. We also have an objective that by July this year we will ensure that not one single patient waits longer than 12 months for his surgery. Obviously, urgent cases will be dealt with expeditiously. I advise the house that we are determined to drive down the list so that the days of, particularly, elderly people waiting for hip and knee replacements - they often used to wait for years - is well and truly a thing of the past. In order to drive that even further we have been involved in negotiations to secure 150 beds outside the acute hospital sector in the residential sector to transfer people who are either occupying an acute bed while waiting for an aged care placement - that is, a bed, which is the responsibility of the commonwealth government and a responsibility that it is not living up to very well, which is causing repercussions in our public hospital system - or who are subacute patients. Creating an additional 150 beds in our public hospital system will allow us to treat 18 000 additional patients in a year in acute beds in acute public hospitals. Eighteen thousand extra patients each year will be able to be treated as a result of freeing up those 150 beds. The cost is approximately $20 million. It is a cost that should be borne by the commonwealth rather than by the state. We will be putting a fence around 30 per cent of those beds and dedicating them to surgery so that there will be no excuse for hospitals to cancel surgery because of a shortage of beds. In particular, we will make sure that we use the availability of 30 per cent of those beds to do more elective surgery. That will very much complement the work being done at the two new surgicentres, at Osborne Park Hospital and Kaleeya Hospital, which service north and south of the river respectively. The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
In order to drive that even further we have been involved in negotiations to secure 150 beds outside the acute hospital sector in the residential sector to transfer people who are either occupying an acute bed while waiting for an aged care placement - that is, a bed, which is the responsibility of the commonwealth government and a responsibility that it is not living up to very well, which is causing repercussions in our public hospital system - or who are subacute patients. Creating an additional 150 beds in our public hospital system will allow us to treat 18 000 additional patients in a year in acute beds in acute public hospitals. Eighteen thousand extra patients each year will be able to be treated as a result of freeing up those 150 beds. The cost is approximately $20 million. It is a cost that should be borne by the commonwealth rather than by the state. We will be putting a fence around 30 per cent of those beds and dedicating them to surgery so that there will be no excuse for hospitals to cancel surgery because of a shortage of beds. In particular, we will make sure that we use the availability of 30 per cent of those beds to do more elective surgery. That will very much complement the work being done at the two new surgicentres, at Osborne Park Hospital and Kaleeya Hospital, which service north and south of the river respectively. The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
The other 70 per cent of beds will be used to reduce the pressure on our emergency departments. Doctors and nurses working in emergency departments have been hit with unrelenting increases in demand for their services. Additional tens of thousands of Western Australians every year are fronting up for emergency care in our public hospital system. The estimate for the north metropolitan region is that, as a result of the beds being made available, the access block will fall from 44 per cent to 30 per cent. That will have a tremendous impact on the emergency departments and the pressure under which the doctors and nurses work. When I met with the heads of the emergency departments last week, they were, to put it politely, extremely pleased at the initiative and the effect it will have on their capacity to continue to deliver high-quality care in our public hospitals. In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
In respect of the question from the member for Maylands, I am very pleased that about half the beds in question in the private residential sector will go to a facility in her electorate in Bayswater.
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