A new report on the performance of ACT Hospitals is currently being used by both Katy Gallagher to shoiw she’s doing a good job, and by Jeremy Hanson to show that’s Katy is doing a bad job.
Every now and then I like to have a rant here about how stupid “the game” of politics is, and how all the played are no better than angry children.
I’ll refrain today, as these two press releases do a wonderful job on their own of demonstrating that the Government’s job is to prove that they’re super smart and rad, and the Opposition’s job is to prove that the Government is a total dumb head.
Sometimes it really feels that nobodies job is to try and make Australia better. Or if it is at any point someone’s job to actually do a their duty as a public servant and serve the public, they get very little done due to having to fill their daily quota of faces pulled at the rival gang.
Ok maybe I ranted a little…
Here’s a bit of Katy’s take on the MyHospital date:
The National Health Performance Authority update to the MyHospitals website shows that the ACT is continuing to improve in elective surgery wait times and is performing on par with comparable hospitals in other jurisdictions when it comes to the new emergency department performance measures.
“This report gives us a good snapshot of how our hospitals are performing when they are compared to other similar hospitals,” the Chief Minister said.
Key findings for Canberra Hospital in the 2011-12 MyHospitals report include:
— The ACT was the only jurisdiction to meet all nine National Elective Surgery Targets (NEST);
— 54% of people departed the ED within four hours of arrival, which is on average with the national peer group performance group;
— 64% of category one resuscitation patients leaving the ED within four hours of arrival compared to the national peer group performance of 48%;
— 50% of emergency patients departed the ED within four hours of arrival compared to its national peer group performance of 40%;
— 42% of urgent patients departed the ED within four hours of arrival compared to its national peer group performance of 44%;
— 57% of semi-urgent patients departed the ED within four hours of arrival compared to its national peer group performance of 62%;
— 81% of non-urgent patients departed the ED within four hours of arrival compared to its national peer group performance of 82%; and,
— Hand hygiene rates at TCH were recorded at 65.4% compared with the national benchmark of 70%.
The report also now shows results by quarter, which includes information up to the March quarter of 2013. The results by quarter in 2012-13 in general show a maintenance of effort at Canberra Hospital for the new emergency department access measures. However, more initiatives are being implemented to further improve on the time people spend in our EDs.
Here’s an example of Jeremy’s take on the subject:
“For seven years now Katy Gallagher has been saying that she will improveemergency department waiting times, but for years we have only seen them get worse,” Mr Hanson said.
“The ACT Government set a target of 65 per cent of patients to be seen within the clinically recommended timeframe in 2013. In the first quarter of last year the Canberra Hospital reached 55 per cent but has now declined to just 53 per cent this year.
“Patients in the ACT are waiting far longer here than they would in any other state in the country.
“Only two days ago we saw evidence that Katy Gallagher knew that the nurse-led walk-in centre would create more work and pressure for our emergency departments yet she went ahead with the project anyway.
“Under Katy Gallagher’s management Canberrans have never waited so long to be treated in our emergency departments. I call on Katy Gallagher to explain why this is happening, and for once take responsibility for her failures,” Mr Hanson concluded.
It would make for great entertainment if it weren’t for the fact we’ve given them a massive pile of responsibility.
[Photo by hoyasmeg (CC BY 2.0)]
