The Liberals’ Jeremy Hanson is having a good old whack at the increasingly hapless Katy Gallagher with new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on emergency department performance.
According to today’s AIHW report, the ACT now has both the worst elective surgery waiting times and the worst emergency department waiting times in the country. ACT Shadow Health Minister Jeremy Hanson said these disastrous outcomes have occurred due to Katy Gallagher’s inability to manage the health system effectively.
“Not only is the ACT’s average elective surgery waiting time of 76 days more than double the national average, we also now have the worst emergency department waiting times, with patients waiting almost twice as long as the national average and only 58 per cent of patients being seen on time,” Mr Hanson said today.
“Canberrans are waiting longer than any other jurisdiction because Katy Gallagher has been incapable of managing the $1 billion health system and these appalling results are simply not good enough.
“Behind these statistics are patients waiting longer than they should and often in pain.
But hey, they’ve got time to work on a new logo!
UPDATE: Chief Minister Gallagher has in turn announced that she’s come up with her own “Report Card” for the ED which shows “improvement”.
“I’m pleased to see the Report Card for August 2011 showing solid improvements in performance by the Canberra Hospital.
“The efforts of the Health Directorate are paying off with significant improvements in the proportion of patients seen within the targeted timeframe across categories 2, 3, 4 and 5,” the Chief Minister said.
The Report Card shows that 100 per cent of Category 1 patients are seen immediately and 88 per cent of Category 2 patients are seen within 10 minutes which is above the target.
“While there’s still more work to do in Categories 3 and 4, I’m pleased to see the proportion of Category 3 patients seen on time has risen from 44 to 64 per cent, and the proportion of Category 4 patients has increased from 42 to 57 per cent,” the Chief Minister said.
“The Report Card also shows 82 per cent of Category 5 presentations to Canberra Hospital are seen within recommended timeframes, which is also above the target.
“Significantly, these improvements at the Canberra Hospital have been made in the face of increasing presentations to the Emergency Department, with an additional 200 people seen during the year to August and more than a hundred additional admissions to hospital via the ED.”
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