HOSPITAL DEMAND

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (14:39): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister update the house about South Australia's success in reducing hospital demand?

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:40): I hope you didn't mean that, Vickie. I thank the member for Mitchell for his important question. I am delighted to advise the house that South Australia has been recognised nationally for its work in increasing out-of-hospital services to reduce growth in demand for in-hospital services. The Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, the body of all the state and territory health chief executive officers, asked me to address the National Health Ministers Conference in Perth last week on how our state had reduced demand on hospital services and how other states might learn from what we are doing.

Our plan to do this was first outlined in 2007 as part of our Health Care Plan, which was our response to the Menadue Generational Health Review. That plan turned the focus to prevention and primary health care to prevent primary acute-care admissions in our hospitals. With the Australian government, we have built a network of GP Plus healthcare centres and super clinics where people can access GP services and a whole range of other primary healthcare services to keep people healthy and out of hospital. We have invested in the obesity prevention program, OPAL, in 20 South Australian communities and introduced a raft of GP Plus strategies to improve the health of our citizens. These have included falls prevention programs, hospital at home, and chronic disease management programs.

The impact of these efforts has been most significant. The growth in the number of overnight patients in our metropolitan hospitals has been tracking at an average of 4.1 per cent between 2002-03 and 2006-07. Since that time, this has declined to an average of 2.4 per cent growth. I am advised that this equates to 297,000 occupied bed days that had been avoided between 2007-08 and 2011-12 as a result of strategies to give people access to support out of hospitals. Nationally, the growth rate is one of the lowest in Australia, especially given our state's ageing population and also the increase in elective surgery that we have performed in that time.

In relation to presentations at our metropolitan emergency departments, growth has been tracking at 4.6 per cent per year between 2003-04 and 2006-07; so just under 5 per cent over those years. Since that time it has decreased to just 1.5 per cent growth, and in 2011-12 there was a 0.3 per cent growth in metropolitan emergency department presentations, so an average of 4.6 down to less than 0.5 per cent. That equates to more than 163,000 avoided presentations in our emergency departments, compared to where we would have been if the growth had continued at the predicted rate.

There has also been a reduction in the average length of stay of patients in metropolitan hospitals from 4.45 days between 2002-03 and 2006-07 to 4.27 days between 2007-08 and 2011-12. That has avoided 264,000 occupied bed days—huge achievements. When you look at these reductions together, I am advised this equates to about 170 beds (assuming a 95 per cent occupancy rate) that have not been required in our hospital system. These represent a significant avoided capital and infrastructure cost to our state. It also means more patients have been able to be looked after in a way which has reduced the burden on them as well.

We have, of course, more work to do, and there are further efficiency gains that have been identified, ways that we can work smarter to further reduce the demand for hospital beds, and we are now implementing these measures. I take this opportunity to commend the excellent staff who work in our health service on their achievements thus far.