Shocking tale in health data

TODAY’S release of the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data does not provide comforting reading for any Tasmanian. Our results are trailing the nation on the two key measures — of elective surgery wait times and delays for admission from our emergency departments.

While our emergency departments are doing an onpar job of getting through the cases that do not then require admission to the hospital, the figures reveal just what a massive issue bed block is for our state.

According to the data — in the 2018-19 financial year — the average wait in a Tasmanian emergency department was bang on the national average of 2 hours and 26 minutes if you did not require admission. But if you did, it was another story. It would have taken you an additional four hours to find a bed — two hours more than the national average. And if you were one of the unlucky 10 per cent who had to wait the longest, you would be lying on a bed in the emergency department for more than 22 hours and 44 minutes, twice the national average.

The elective surgery figures meanwhile shed some light on why Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt last month felt that he had to come to the rescue of Tasmanians stuck on elective surgery waiting lists through an additional $15 million to help those who have waited the longest.

The report reveals Tasmanians are not only waiting longer than in any other state for elective surgery, but the proportion of patients admitted within the clinically recommended time is also the lowest here.

For the most serious category one patients (who should be seen within 30 days), only 72 per cent were. The next-worse state on that measure was Western Australia, at 86 per cent. In Victoria, it was 100 per cent.

It’s the same with category two and category three patients — our wait times are just so far behind the other states it is almost tragic. Just 43 per cent of those in the second-most critical category were admitted within the 90 days they should be in Tasmania. Among those in the least-critical category three (who should be admitted within 365 days) it was 66 per cent. These results are just not good enough.

Now it is true that some — some — of those problems are simply due to demand. As State Health Minister Sarah Courtney points out, the number of Tasmanians added to the waiting list last financial year was more than 3000 greater than five years ago. And she is right to trumpet the Hodgman Government’s achievement in reducing the average excessive waiting time for the longest-waiting non-urgent (category three) patients. That average overdue wait time was 531 days longer than the 365 days clinically recommended in March 2014. In June of this year, it was 95 days.

But let’s not get too quick to the back slapping. That still means the average wait for this cohort is three months longer than the experts recommend. It’s still far from great. It is a good thing, therefore, to see that Minister Courtney is on the front foot responding to all these issues. We must hope (and pray?) the Royal Hobart Hospital’s new K Block will ease some of the pressures on the emergency department. But it’s not a cure-all. And that’s why the hard work must continue.

THIS EXPLAINS WHY THE FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTER CAME TO THE RESCUE OF TASMANIANS STUCK ON ELECTIVE SURGERY WAITING LISTS