Ministerial Statement

ELECTIVE SURGERY

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:06): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I am delighted to reveal, for the first time today, that our hospitals provided 46,433 elective surgery procedures to South Australians at metropolitan hospitals in the year 2010-11. That is 8,286 (or 21.7 per cent) more elective surgical procedures than in the last year of the previous Liberal government. It is also 1,876 more procedures than in the previous year; that is, the 2009-10 year. There were only five overdue patients as at 30 June 2011—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Five overdue patients; 46,433 elective surgical procedures in that year and five overdue at the end of the year. In our country hospitals 16,071—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —elective surgery procedures were performed, 182 more than in the previous year, with only six overdue patients as at 30 June 2011. This is an outstanding result, and I am sure that all members would commend the number of surgical procedures performed, and the efforts of everyone involved in this achievement—surgeons, nurses and the many other people who support them in our theatres in our hospitals. I know that people have worked incredibly hard to achieve these targets, which were set by the state government as part of our push to reduce waiting times for elective surgery.

We have invested $88.6 million over four years from 2010 to 2014 to fund 260,000 elective surgery procedures in metropolitan and country hospitals. This achievement means that more South Australians have been able to receive the surgery they need to improve the quality of their life, whether that be ear, nose and throat surgery, vascular surgery, orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, urology, gynaecology, thoracic surgery, or ophthalmology.

Just last week South Australia's public hospitals were also recognised for exceeding national elective surgery targets. South Australia was the only jurisdiction to achieve all components of COAG's national partnership agreement on elective surgery. In terms of volume, doctors in metropolitan public hospitals performed 22,953 elective surgery procedures in the six months from July to December 2010, 500 more than the target. South Australia was also one of only three jurisdictions to achieve the national target for improved waiting times; 322 patients waited for longer than the clinically recommended time at the end of December 2010, 184 fewer than the target.

In South Australia, 91 per cent of admitted patients were seen on time in the 18 months to December 2010 compared with our target of 83 per cent, an improvement of eight percentage points. Our state also was rated highly in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's 2009-10 Australian Hospital Statistics Report. That report showed 90 per cent of all patients in South Australia were admitted for elective surgery within 189 days, the lowest result ever achieved since reporting on this indicator began and 23.5 per cent below the national figure of 247 days.

South Australia also ranked number one nationally with the lowest percentage of patients who waited more than 365 days for elective surgery. This number has halved since 2007-08. In the coming year, additional funding will enable a total of 64,140 elective surgical procedures to be performed in our hospitals in South Australia. This includes 47,378 procedures in metro hospitals and 16,762 in country hospitals, a record that our health system is very proud of. It is attacked by only one group in this state.