Normally when there are health statistics out the Chief Minister’s office can cherry pick something that is either good or improving.
Today they’re silent while the Liberals’ Jeremy Hanson takes the free kick:
The ACT continues to flounder as the worst in the country on emergency department waiting times according to the latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said today.
“The AIHW Australian hospital statistics 2012-13 Emergency department care report shows, the average wait time in the ACT has worsened from 38 minutes to 44. Nationally, average waiting times have improved from 21 minutes down to 19. The lengthy ACT wait also compares with a much lower average wait time of 17 minutes just across the border in NSW,” Mr Hanson said.
“The total number of patients seen by the ACT’s emergency departments has only risen by 0.5% in the last year, but the portion of patients seen on time has again fallen to the worst in the country. It’s down from 55% to 51%, which compares with the national average of 73%.
“It’s not good enough for ACT patients in vulnerable situations to be waiting longer than the rest of the country for essential hospital care. I again call for a full performance audit of our emergency departments by the Auditor-General.
“The inescapable fact is, this Government simply cannot get the job done.
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What’s Your opinion?
Health statistics so ugly the Chief Minister has nothing to say
Chop71 said :
Correct. We are forgetting that 0.01 percent of the people getting crap healthcare really want gay marriage.
Katy, Barr and Corbell are delivering for them.
Woody Mann-Caruso said :
Because we have such a good health system.
“potentially avoidable GP presentations” is a misnomer. Something to distract attention. Just because something is a triage cat 4 or 5 doesn’t make it GP. Just because someone thinks after presenting to an ED and being sent home with a diagnosis that their GP could have handled it doesn’t mean that they could.
This is old data, and being misrepresented. ACT has two emergency departments. Both are major ones. Amongst national major ED’s, both TCH and Calvary sit in the middle to top half. Every other state has small hospitals that do much better and make the figures look better. Look closer at the individual stats for each hospital in the country. Look at John Hunter, or Townsville, or Flinders, or Royal Hobart, as the only really similar hospitals to TCH and see how they do.
Sometimes people wait. Sometimes they wait for too long. The vast majority of time the quality of care they receive is excellent. Sometimes it isn’t. But judging an ED purely on how long someone sits in a waiting room???
Thumper said :
Idiot… You’re….
Sigh, Friday afternoon….
howeph said :
+1.
DrKoresh said :
Groan. Old meme is really old, and wasn’t particularly funny to begin with.
The AIHW data indicates that, of the 118,000-odd A&E presentation in Canberra in 2012-13, 46,000 were ‘potentially avoidable GP-type presentations’.
DrKoresh said :
So I take your happy with the way Gallagher/ Stanhope have let arguably the best hospital system in Australia turn in to the worse in a mere decade?
Some people are easy to please.
Robertson said :
Presenting with chest pain at the emergency department is NOT wasting anyone’s time.
Robertson can you please tone down the aggressiveness in your posts. You might not realise it but calling people names, like a hypochondriac, is not funny or incisive; it’s boorish.
DrKoresh said :
Katy should get you to write her press release
Robertson said :
Robertson said :
So you’d suggest that a middle aged man with sharp shooting pains across the chest and cold sweats should be more conscious of the burden that they may be on the health system and not present themselves at A&E at 11pm? Not sure if you’re an idiot or a troll.
And FYI, the ABS reports that around a quarter of the people who had visited a hospital emergency department in 2009 thought the care they had received on their most recent visit could have been provided by a general practitioner. So, in summary, around a quarter of people go to A&E knowing that they should probably go to their GP. I went because my wife thought I was going to die.
They should recruit you lot of whingers to work the waaahmbulance.
yup, you get what you vote for……
no plastic bags and gay marriages
very important stuff when you’re waiting in emergency
neanderthalsis said :
You have to admire the front of a hypochondriac who’s just gone and wasted everybody’s time at A&E casting aspersions on the rest of the timewasters who he saw there on his visit.
The inescapable fact is, this Government simply cannot get the job done.
And we’ll keep voting them in until they get it right! It is said that you get the government you deserve…
That said, I did have a health scare recently, went to Calvary late in the evening and was seen promptly and well cared for. Luckily it turned out to be nothing, but shooting pains across my chest bumped me to the front of the queue of sniffles and bumps that seemed to otherwise fill the waiting room.
Nothing to worry about – people can watch footage of the Skywhale on their recharged phones while waiting:
http://the-riotact.com/respite-for-the-leccy-leechers-at-canberra-hospital/112817