Hospital Services Winter Demand

Ms NOREEN HAY: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health. What is the latest information on preparations within our health system to deal with increased winter demand?

Ms REBA MEAGHER: Members would be aware that traditionally winter is the busiest time of year for our hospital system. Demand patterns from recent years tell us that admissions to hospitals typically increase by 6 per cent between July and September and that the average length of stay in hospitals rises by an average of 2 per cent. Referring to raw numbers, last year that translated to an extra 1,000 children visiting New South Wales hospitals each week compared with the summer period, and to an extra 500 adults a week presenting to an emergency department. In the winter period the main drivers of demand come from older patients with a respiratory illness—around 40,000 patients were diagnosed with such a condition last winter—and from patients suffering influenza.

The good news is that our hospitals have an excellent track record of gearing up to deal with this increased winter demand. This was highlighted as recently as a month ago by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in its report entitled "Australian hospital statistics 2006-07". Most significantly, members will be interested to hear that the report stated that emergency department waiting times in New South Wales are the best in the country. The institute found that New South Wales once again achieved four of the five national emergency department triage benchmarks—a feat that no other State in the country came close to achieving. In fact, taking all State and Territory data collated nationally, only one benchmark target was achieved and that was in the lower urgency category of triage 5.

This is a strong, independent evaluation of how well our system performs in the face of strong demand. We can take great pride in the achievement of our medical staff. But, far from resting on our laurels, yesterday the Premier and I visited Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and released a comprehensive winter health strategy aimed at better managing the needs of the extra 20,000 patients expected in our hospitals in coming months. It also encourages and assists people to stay healthier and out of hospital, and it further supports our medical staff at this busy time. One of the key plans is the addition of 124 acute care beds to build capacity in our medical assessment units and to add winter flex capacity. Since February 189 beds in 15 medical assessment units have been progressively opened in our busiest hospitals. A further seven units and more beds will open in the near future: Nepean Hospital will be the next to come on line, in July.

I have visited a number of these units at Royal North Shore, Wollongong, Liverpool, Gosford and Fairfield hospitals, and the enthusiasm and feedback from patients and staff have been more than encouraging. In addition to more beds being available this winter, many more emergency physicians will be in our busy hospitals compared with last year. In December last year the Government committed to recruit an additional 35 emergency physicians and I am pleased to be able to advise the House today that since this recruitment campaign began 27 new emergency specialists have been appointed to the New South Wales health system, and three specialists have been appointed to area-of-need positions. Two have commenced work already and one will start later this year.

The hospitals to benefit from this emergency physician recruitment drive are: Orange, one physician; John Hunter, two physicians; Gosford, two physicians; Liverpool, three physicians; Blacktown-Mount Druitt, three physicians; St George, four physicians; the Children's Hospital at Westmead, three physicians; Concord, two physicians; Nepean, one physician; Royal Prince Alfred, four physicians; Fairfield, two physicians; and Westmead, three physicians. These figures do not include specialists who have moved from one New South Wales emergency department to another to take up appointment; they represent new doctors in the system.

Yesterday the Premier and I spoke to the director of the emergency department at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Dr Tim Green. Dr Green commented on the enormous contribution of the extra physicians. Despite the efforts of those opposite to continually denigrate our health professionals, the figures demonstrate that our doctors and nurses are doing a great job in delivering compassionate, quality care to patients. They are working together to ensure that our hospitals are some of the most efficient in the country.

The SPEAKER: Order! Members, including the member for Mount Druitt and the member for Hawkesbury, will cease interjecting.

Ms REBA MEAGHER: Another feature of our winter strategy is the introduction of a new patient tracking and information system in emergency departments. The FirstNet Emergency Department Program is part of an $80 million four-year strategy to revolutionise clinical information technology in public hospitals. FirstNet replaces the previous emergency department patient-tracking software that has been in place for around 13 years. FirstNet provides clinicians throughout the hospital with easy access to patient information by enabling for the first time activity in the emergency department to be viewed from any location. The program is designed specifically to streamline the work of clinical staff in the emergency department; better track patient data and emergency department activity; minimise error and duplication; increase the amount of time a clinician spends with a patient; reduce handover time to wards and care teams; and ensure accurate and consistent delivery of care. FirstNet has been introduced in 15 hospitals to date and a further 7 hospitals will receive this new technology in the near future.

The Winter Health Strategy extends beyond the walls of our busiest hospitals: the influenza program is running again from May to September this year. It allows New South Wales Health to identify early outbreaks or significant variations in flu presentations and plan additional emergency department activity accordingly. The good news to date is that after a particularly virulent influenza strain last year a return to more moderate levels has been observed so far this year. These are just some of the key elements of the Iemma Government's plans to better support both our patients and health professionals through this traditionally busy time of year. I look forward to providing the House with a report on the success of this strategy in the future.