Hospital excels with its wait list

TOWNSVILLE Hospital is one of the best in Queensland with patients being operated on within 15 days, which is half the time of the recommended 30 days.

In the Australian system, people undergoing elective surgery are classed into three categories with clinically recommended wait times.

Category one patients should have their surgery within 30 days, category two within 90 days and category three within a year.

As of May 31, there were 4251 people on Townsville’s wait list, with 787 elective surgeries performed that month.

There were 321 category one patients operated on in that month with an average waiting time of 15 days for treatment.

Category two patients had to wait an average of 74 days, and 357 days for category three patients.

Townsville Hospital chief executive Kieran Keyes said across the hospital’s 29 surgical and medical specialities that offer outpatient appointments, 98.25 per cent of people were seen within the recommended times.

“Despite this proven, demonstrable track record in delivering timely, world-class elective surgery to our community we continue to face real challenges,” he said.

“We face increasing demand not just for elective surgery but a huge volume of emergency surgery that comes with being North Queensland’s major tertiary referral centre.

“We also continue to punch above our weight in our ability to attract in-demand worldclass surgeons to deliver a wide range of surgical procedures that you typically don’t find outside of major metropolitan centres.”

Mr Keyes said as of April, there were 6579 people waiting for a surgical specialist outpatient appointment, with the hospital seeing 4000 patients.

“The pathway to have elective surgery in Australia starts with a GP referring a patient to a specialist outpatient clinic,” he said.

Townsville Hospital board chair Tony Mooney said it was the sixth consecutive time the hospital had ended a financial year without any patients waiting longer than set guidelines.

“This has come in the face of increased demand that is being felt across the system and is a credit to our brilliant frontline staff,” he said.

“It also has led to statewide recognition of our health service as a tier one performing hospital and health services, one of just two in Queensland.”