Hospitals’ clean health bill

THE region’s hospitals are treating more people quicker and progressing with plans to shore up healthcare delivery for the future.

Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service’s annual report revealed a record number of people were treated across the network’s 31 facilities including the Toowoomba Hospital.

Most patients were seen to within the recommended timeframes.

“In real terms, this included 185 more elective surgeries at Toowoomba Hospital, treating almost 6000 more people admitted to our hospitals and caring for almost 4600 more people in our emergency departments than the previous financial year,” DDHHS chairman Mike Horan said.

The Breast-Screen service in the region scanned a record number of women with 19,037 screened, while telehealth consultations grew by 36 per cent.

“We have also had a third consecutive year of 100% of oral patients seen in less than two years for treatment,” Mr Horan said.

“We are also very proud of the achievements in indigenous health including obtaining $1.79 million in funding under the Making Tracks Investment Strategy for nine projects to help close the health gap in our indigenous communities.”

Community consultation investigated how the DDHHS could meet growing healthcare needs in the region. A $3 million allocation in the last state budget will help form a detailed business case on future strategies.

Multi-million dollar infrastructure projects were completed including a $2.75m CT scanner at Toowoomba Hospital.

“We also had the culmination of a $50.6m backlog maintenance program that saw 474 separate projects completed over four years,” Mr Horan said.

“The new $9.55m MRI service at Toowoomba Hospital started operating and the $3m expansion of the facility’s emergency department was largely completed, as well as a kitchen refurbishment at Warwick Hospital.”

Mr Horan said the results were a credit to the staff.

“This is the second year in a row we have had almost 100% of all specialist outpatients and 100% elective patients seen within clinically recommended timeframes,” he said.

“It is a tribute to the hard work of our staff to cope with these increases in demand while also maintaining safe standards and achieving national benchmarks for elective surgery and emergency care waiting times.”