MyHospitals website and Canberra Hospital

The data are definitely dogdy. Linking through to state and territory departments of health websites is a real cop out.

My understanding is that the state and territory links are there for a few reasons.

1. Each state and territory measures waiting times differently and they all wanted their chance to show the public how their numbers are the same or better than shown on the main site.
2. Some health departments provide data on a weekly or daily basis for their major hospitals, so you can get more timely information.

A lot of people seem to forget that the myHospitals website isn’t the be all and end all for hospital information. There are plenty of other more detailed reports put out by governments at all levels as well which have the information that is not included on the myhospitals site.

If you really need to know something that isn’t reported there is always the option of calling the actual hospital and asking them politely…I know, actually doing something for yourself for a change, novel isn’t it 🙂

The data are definitely dogdy. Linking through to state and territory departments of health websites is a real cop out.

For example, MyHospital links to reports of surgeons’ waiting times, but the data neglect to say that the bureacracy interferes in surgery schedules, so that an urgent case (<90 days at the time) keeps getting bumped off the list by the bean counters then bumped back on the list by the surgeon.

laughtong said :

Elective surgery can cover a huge range.

Young work colleague has a torn ligment in a knee. She is on crutches and in some pain.

She was offered offered an initial appointment with a orthopeadic specialist in the public system in 2012. That’s right, over a years wait to even get on the waiting list for surgery.

She has been forced to go private, which as she doesn’t have insurance will have a big financial impact on her. At least she will she a specialist in Jan 2011.

They have a strange definition of elective surgery. I had an elevated PSA and was booked in at TCH for a biopsy to determine whether I had prostate cancer. Now you would think that suspected cancer would be at or near top priority. But no, I was on the waiting list for over a year. A week before I was due for the procedure I phoned TCH to confirm the details of the appointment given to me by ACT Health. The woman said that Dr (x) had “an urgent patient” and I would have to wait a further three months (16 months). When I said ACT Health had booked me for that date I was told “well, nobody told us”. When I said I wasn’t going to wait any longer and they’d better do the operation or else I was put on hold almost five minutes before being told I could have the operation on the agreed date.

Ar Gerry built: “They”? the neurologist had one and died?

laughtong said :

Young work colleague has a torn ligment in a knee. She is on crutches and in some pain.

She was offered offered an initial appointment with a orthopeadic specialist in the public system in 2012. That’s right, over a years wait to even get on the waiting list for surgery.

My wife has waited two years just to hear about an appointment to see the public neurologist (following inexplicable, instant onset migraines)… they rang about 12 months ago to see if she still required an appointment – not to book one, just to ask if she still needed one… (we did book with a private one, but they had a heart attack a week before the appointment)

There’s a few issues with the site:
– No waiting times for outpatient appointments
– No indications of how good the service is – only the amount of time you have to wait for it!
I think comparing hospitals based on surgical waiting lists and emergency waiting times is a bit silly – there are far more important things to be focussed on than these indicators.

Elective surgery can cover a huge range.

Young work colleague has a torn ligment in a knee. She is on crutches and in some pain.

She was offered offered an initial appointment with a orthopeadic specialist in the public system in 2012. That’s right, over a years wait to even get on the waiting list for surgery.

She has been forced to go private, which as she doesn’t have insurance will have a big financial impact on her. At least she will she a specialist in Jan 2011.

There are a lot of young doctors leaving the ACT Health system after they applied for positions with an advertised salary of $82k-94k, then when they received their contracts the amount offered was $72k. It does seem like a lot of money but after at least 6 years at uni 2 years in the hospital and a Hecs debt of about $50k it doesn’t really seem like a lot of cash. I would say with in the next five years Canberra hospitals will get worse not better. If you pay the least and show young doctors no respect how can you expect the best to stay?

Stanhopeless is a joke. His government/rabble preside over a health system that is the worst in the country. Lowest bulkbilling per capita, longest waiting lists of any state or territory and finally the lowest GP rate per capita of anywhere except some very remote communities in outback Australia!!!!!!

Only last week Jon Nohope said on ABC 666 we have the best out come of any other health system in the country. Well, that is empty rhetoric for those on long waiting lists with no money. Why oh why do we put up with these people? Throw these people out!!!!

If someone needs medical attention, eg: cancer or anything else of that nature, I recommend getting a referral to a Sydney Hospital or specialists.

What a ridiculous website.

Emergency department and elective surgery waiting times are two of the least important indicators of a hospitals performance. Yet like the media and hysterical public, this website makes out like they are the only indicator of a hospital’s performance.

Look at the hospital’s stats: 6% of admissions were for elective surgery, compared to 76% of admissions for medical conditions. Yet the powers that be have felt it unimportant to measure the performance of the hospital on medical conditions, something which occupys over 3/4 of beds.

Personally, I measure the performance of a hospital by how well trained and resourced the staff are in looking after me when I am unwell, not how quickly I can have my sore toe attended to in ED on a Saturday night, nor how long I have to wait to get my varicose veins stripped.

BTW Taz, I in no way endorse the Stanhope government, but I think you’ll find the Federal Government is responsible for GP services.