MyHospitals due next month
A new website being developed as part of the Government’s ambitious health reform agenda will list and compare important data about public hospitals for all Australians to access.
Launching next month, the MyHospitals website will provide clear, comparable and user-friendly information about all Australian public hospitals in all states and territories, except Western Australia.
At the click of a mouse, people will be able to find the latest data on their local hospital. MyHospitals will show how that hospital performed compared to national average waiting times for elective surgery and emergency department care, list the medical services provided, bed numbers and if outpatient services, such as allied health and dental services, are provided.
Once operational, we will be able to see which hospitals throughout Australia are performing well, and which hospitals may need more targeted assistance to help lift their performance.
Holidaymakers will be able to check whether a hospital at their destination offers accident and emergency services, and expectant mums in Sydney can check whether their nearest hospital has an obstetrics and maternity unit.
Similarly, people in Launceston will be able to see how their local hospital compares against the national average waiting times for a range of elective surgery procedures, while residents in Adelaide will be able to see how many beds are provided in Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The website is being developed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare using the latest nationally comparable data from 2008-09. As a result of the COAG agreement in April, this data has been provided with the agreement and support of every state and territory government except Western Australia.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) believes the site will be a good start but is concerned about the currency of the data which will be at least one year old.
“The AMA hopes that, over time, the website will provide more comprehensive and timely information as it becomes available, especially in regard to hospital bed numbers,” said AMA president, Andrew Pesce.
“The AMA has urged the Government to establish a monitoring system called Bedwatch to conduct a national stocktake of the actual numbers of beds needed in each hospital to provide safe care.
“Bedwatch would track existing beds, new beds and bed occupancy rates to ensure that bed occupancy rates in public hospitals meet the AMA’s preferred level of 85% bed occupancy,” he said.
The site will be ready in August.
