20 December 2011

Surgery report card out for September 2011, looks pretty good!

| johnboy
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Katy Gallagher is pretty pleased with her latest surgery report card:

“The report card shows we are doing more operations than ever before with 2992 elective surgery operations completed in the first quarter of 2011-12 of which about a third involved NSW patients.

“However, while we are doing more and more surgery, the number of people added to the waiting list has also jumped considerably. This has contributed to a slight increase in our waiting list in September 2011 and a small rise in the six month moving median wait time from 62 to 64 days.

“I am pleased, however, that despite this additional pressure, the total number of people waiting longer than recommended has remained steady.

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oh no, we’re not fudging the statistics, no way!

I’m cynical because its taking 2 months to release the data. Its hardly a mountain of data – a few thousand patients, not millions.

How ACT government actually. Fudge the statistics to show mediocrity. They should go the whole hog, North Korean style … “11 holes in one….”.

My point exactly dpm. What a shining light we are for best practice local government all around the world – they must be clambering at the doors in the northern hemisphere to learn all about it!! (because of course no-one else has ever before tried anything so brilliant, so innovative, so insulated from market cycles – oh wait, never mind.)

drfelonious said :

Before Katy Gallagher gets pleased about anything health related, she should try getting seen by an emergency room doctor at Canberra Hospital. Conditions there are atrocious.

We moved to the southside about 12 months ago and in that time members of my family have had cause to go to emergency three times. Each time was an unmitigated shambles in terms of the time taken to be seen by someone and the pressure of people relative to medical resources. I gained the impression that unless people show up at emergency with an immediately life threatening problem, Canberra Hospital “manages” the load by simply not seeing people and waiting for them to leave. Probably massaging their KPIs to make the data look good – if you never admit people, then they probably don’t show in the stats!

I am one taxpayer happy for much more of the ACT budget to be spent on health. Here’s an idea – abolish those leeches in the LDA and put all that money into health! While I’m on the subject, how much does it cost to run the Brisbane city council relative to the ACT govt on a per capita basis hmmm?

Problem is, LDA (kinda!) brings in $ for the govt, health takes it away. Guess what the priority is?

Before Katy Gallagher gets pleased about anything health related, she should try getting seen by an emergency room doctor at Canberra Hospital. Conditions there are atrocious.

We moved to the southside about 12 months ago and in that time members of my family have had cause to go to emergency three times. Each time was an unmitigated shambles in terms of the time taken to be seen by someone and the pressure of people relative to medical resources. I gained the impression that unless people show up at emergency with an immediately life threatening problem, Canberra Hospital “manages” the load by simply not seeing people and waiting for them to leave. Probably massaging their KPIs to make the data look good – if you never admit people, then they probably don’t show in the stats!

I am one taxpayer happy for much more of the ACT budget to be spent on health. Here’s an idea – abolish those leeches in the LDA and put all that money into health! While I’m on the subject, how much does it cost to run the Brisbane city council relative to the ACT govt on a per capita basis hmmm?

The key thing in the article is “elective” surgery.

This means that the persons surgery is not life saving but improving their quality of life. That is the important dstinction . What the media do not report on is that the reason a lot of elective surgery is delayed is because emergency surgery will always take preference. That is emergency surgery that arrives via the emergency department such as major trauma and acute surgical cases.

If I had to wait 3 months for my surgery I would be unhappy. But if I knew that I wasn’t going to get my in grown toenails resected because a child required an emergency appendectomy I would understand.

You take your life into your hands any time you go into Canberra Hospital so maybe people are just getting their ops done interstate instead?

A friend of my brother is now a quadriplegic after going in for a lung biopsy in Canberra Hospital and having his spinal cord damaged instead. His family took him to Sydney pretty quickly after that mess for further ANYTHING to be done by doctors.

I’ve personally had experience with a relative in and out of Canberra and Calvary hospitals this year and they can’t even diagnose conditions properly in the emergency departments let alone the wards – I certainly hope I never have to go into Canberra or Calvary for anything that can’t be put off until I find a better hospital interstate.

I guess this must be the report after dodgying up the waiting lists..

I was just wondering if the waiting times in the ACT are particularly bad because of the number of people who can afford private insurance, and therefore push back public patients? Are these things linked?

AG Canberra said :

People waiting longer than they should didn’t go up because they have only been on the list for a month!

The fact of the matter is that there are more than 1100 people in a town of only 300k who are waiting longer than they should.

Yep, but the trend lines are looking good.

People waiting longer than they should didn’t go up because they have only been on the list for a month!

The fact of the matter is that there are more than 1100 people in a town of only 300k who are waiting longer than they should.

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