ACT budget commits to public health services

Posted July 11th 2008

by DPS

Releasing the third quarter report on the performance of the ACT public health system, Minister Katy Gallagher pointed to a range of indicators in the report that demonstrated the commitment of ACT’s public health services:

all clients in need of emergency dental treatment were seen with 24 hours;
all urgent radiotherapy patients received care on time, and there was an 11% improvement in waiting times for all radiotherapy patients in the third quarter of 2007-08 compared with the same quarter last year;
ninety-six percent of ambulance presentations at our emergency department were transferred to the emergency department within 20 minutes of arrival – up from 93% last quarter;
day of surgery admissions at 86.1% were better than the target of 80%.

“Access to emergency department services in public hospitals has continued to improve despite a 23% increase in the number of more serious category 1 and 2 cases in this quarter, when compared with the third quarter of last year.

“However, the government accepts that there is still more to do to ensure that all people are seen within standard timeframes at our emergency departments.”

Ms Gallagher said that over the last few years, the government had invested in services to assist in reducing pressures on the emergency department.