EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Health. How are South Australia's emergency departments performing in comparison to other states and territories?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (15:04): I thank the member for Light for the question. I have begun a series of meetings with staff from our hospitals just last week—I have done this a number of times over the years that I have been minister, and I started at the Royal Adelaide Hospital this week—to speak with staff about the health reforms in this state, to give them an update on where we are at in terms of the implementation of our healthcare plan (it's halfway through, five years in) and also to talk about future targets, particularly the priorities around emergency departments and elective surgery.

These visits are aimed at providing the doctors, the nurses, the allied health workers, as well as the administrative staff, with a chance to hear firsthand from myself and the CE of the department, and also to ask questions about matters that are of interest and importance to them. I was very pleased to be able to tell the staff at the Royal Adelaide last week about the major gains that have been made over the past five years in our hospital emergency departments since we introduced the SA Health Care Plan 2007-16.

Recent national reports show that South Australia is one of the top two states and territories in the nation on all of the current major emergency department indicators—

Mr Hamilton-Smith: Oh, rubbish! You're the worst on the four-hour rule. You're the lowest of all the states on the four-hour rule.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Waite!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I would invite the shadow minister for health to get a question, and I would be happy to answer any question he might care to ask me. As I was saying, recent national reports show that our state is one of the top two in terms of all of the current major emergency department indicators. The median wait time to service delivery of 20 minutes in 2010-11 is down from 29 minutes four years ago and is the best result this state has ever achieved. We were second in the nation on this indicator.

The 90^th percentile waiting time—that is, the time which 90 per cent of people waited to see a doctor or nurse—was 104 minutes in 2010-11. This result is the best in Australia and is 10 minutes below the national average—the best in Australia. Ninety per cent of patients were seen within 104 minutes—the very best in Australia. The percentage of people seen on time in our emergency departments was 71 per cent in 2010-11—the equal second best result in the nation and a big improvement from the 61 per cent in 2007-08. I am also advised that in December 2011 we have improved slightly; we are now at 72 per cent.

In addition, our GP Plus hospital avoidance strategies have meant we have had the lowest (or the best) average growth in emergency department presentations in the period 2006-07 to 2010-11. We had an average growth of 2 per cent, compared to 4 per cent nationally. So, because of our strategy, we have reduced the amount of people who are going to the emergency department. We have still got growth, but we have reduced the rate of growth to 2 per cent, compared to 4 per cent nationally. This is a massive turnaround in the growth and demand.

I am pleased to say that, while we still have 35 per cent of emergency department presentations from patients who could be seen in GP surgeries—so, they are avoidable GP-type presentations as they are described—our 35 per cent was below the national average of 39 per cent. That means we are providing strategies and opportunities for people to get care outside of our hospitals. This puts us as number two in the nation.

We, of course, are the first to acknowledge that we have a lot more work to do. That is why I was at the hospital to go through our plans for that extra work. We now have a new target at both a state and federal level to have 90 per cent of all patients seen, treated and discharged or admitted to a ward bed within four hours, and that is a major focus in 2012. This is backed with $111 million in spending over four years, which we announced at the last election, to support key strategies. These strategies include 'see and treat' clinics, acute medical units, patient flow coordinators and extended care paramedics, and a number of these initiatives have been rolled out. As a result, we now have a significant number of extra staff working in our hospital emergency departments.

Data from 2009-10, before this four-hour target was introduced, shows that South Australia was well behind the other states on that indicator, and we are not avoiding that fact. That means we have a long way to go on that indicator. But a fair assessment of our emergency departments shows that, on all of the indicators that were in place at that time and that are looked at nationally, we are doing very well, and that is a tribute to the doctors, the nurses and the administrators and the public servants who run our hospital system. We will do better—that is because we want to and because that is our charter.