❓ Hon Adele Farina asks about speech therapy services in South West schools, including frequency, student access, and wait times. The response indicates data limitations prevent providing school-specific details, but provides regional statistics.
AnsweredQoN 3206Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
(1) What schools in the South West region have a speech therapist visit the school? (2) In relation to each school identified in (1), how many hours/days per week is a speech therapist at the school? (3) In relation to each school identified in (1), how many students at the school are currently accessing the services of the speech therapist? (4) In relation to each school identified in (1), what is the wait time for an appointment with the speech therapist?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
8 September 2015
Responded by
Parliamentary Secretary representing the Minister for Health
Response time
84 days
(1) WA Country Health Service (WACHS) employs Speech Pathologists to visit primary schools in the South West Health region on an as needs basis. The need is in response to referrals by the school or school health nurses and to support program implementation by Allied Health Assistants, Education Assistants and Teachers in the school setting. There are 153 schools in the South West and Speech Pathologists cover all 153 schools in response to referrals / requests.
(2) The Patient Administration System does not collect data for which school the child attends and is not able to provide a report for which service was delivered at a school. At this stage, it is not possible to provide information on the time each Speech Pathologist spends at each school. The number of hours/days per week that Speech Pathologists visit each school is variable dependent on referral numbers and programs running.
(3) The Patient Administration System does not collect data for which school the child attends and is not able to provide a report for which service was delivered at a school. Only the number of school age (4 to 12 years of age) children accessing Speech Therapist services can be provided by the system, and is determined by reporting on activity against client age. As at 16 June 2015, 485 school age children (4 to 12 years of age) have accessed WACHS - South West Speech Therapy since 1 April 2015.
(4) The Patient Administration System does not collect data for which school the child attends and is not able to provide a report for which service was delivered at a school. At this stage it is therefore not possible to provide information on the wait time for referrals per school. However, all referrals are triaged and urgent referrals are seen within 1-2 weeks. As at 16 June 2015 the average wait time is approximately 4-6 weeks.
(2) The Patient Administration System does not collect data for which school the child attends and is not able to provide a report for which service was delivered at a school. At this stage, it is not possible to provide information on the time each Speech Pathologist spends at each school. The number of hours/days per week that Speech Pathologists visit each school is variable dependent on referral numbers and programs running.
(3) The Patient Administration System does not collect data for which school the child attends and is not able to provide a report for which service was delivered at a school. Only the number of school age (4 to 12 years of age) children accessing Speech Therapist services can be provided by the system, and is determined by reporting on activity against client age. As at 16 June 2015, 485 school age children (4 to 12 years of age) have accessed WACHS - South West Speech Therapy since 1 April 2015.
(4) The Patient Administration System does not collect data for which school the child attends and is not able to provide a report for which service was delivered at a school. At this stage it is therefore not possible to provide information on the wait time for referrals per school. However, all referrals are triaged and urgent referrals are seen within 1-2 weeks. As at 16 June 2015 the average wait time is approximately 4-6 weeks.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.