Qld: Minister defends hospital performance

AAP General News (Australia)
02-16-2009
Qld: Minister defends hospital performance

By Gabrielle Dunlevy and Tony Bartlett

BRISBANE, Feb 16 AAP - Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson says he's happy
to campaign on Labor's health record, despite it falling short in some areas.

The government on Monday released its public hospitals performance report for the December
2008 quarter, which showed a growing number of people being treated in the state's hospitals.

The report came as speculation mounted of an election next month, six months earlier
than its due date.

It showed large increases in emergency department attendances and improvements in patient
numbers treated across the state compared to the same quarter last year.

But emergency departments continued to fall short on four out of five national targets
on how soon patients should be treated.

On elective surgery waiting times, the report showed a 34.3 per cent drop in the number
of category one, or urgent cases, waiting longer than recommended, since last year.

However, the number of category two cases waiting longer than recommended increased
4.7 per cent, to 3,401 patients.

They were mainly orthopaedic and general surgery patients.

Shadow Health Minister Mark McArdle says it's appalling that despite spending more
than $20 billion over three years there's little evidence of any real improvement in hospital
services.

"I'm very concerned there are well over 7,000 people in this state who have had to
wait longer for surgery than recommended," he said.

"I'm equally concerned that we don't know the number of the tens of thousands who are
on the unofficial waiting list - to get onto the waiting list.

"Now I know that in 2007 there were 143,000 patients waiting for a new case appointment.

"How many of those are still waiting, and has that number grown," said Mr McArdle.

Mr Robertson said he was pleased with the progress of extra spending on health, but
denied the system was in crisis.

"When you look at the facts, I think we have a strong story to tell," he told reporters
in Brisbane.

"If I was presenting to you figures that showed despite the additional funding that
has been injected into our health system, that we were going backwards, then I think people
would rightfully be critical of us.

"The simple fact is, we're able to demonstrate quite an increasingly strong story about
how we're dealing with pressures across our system, responding with more clinical staff,
more doctors, more hospital beds and therefore more operations."

AAP gd/pjo/it/de

KEYWORD: HOSPITALS QLD WRAP

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