EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:29): My question is directed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Minister, can you update the house on the performance of our hospital emergency departments and further planned improvements?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:30): I thank the member for Ashford for this question. Over the last four months, South Australia's hospital emergency departments have topped the nation for having the lowest median waiting time in the nation and the equal highest proportion of patients who were seen on time. I can advise today that we are also working in Health to improve the ambulance turnaround times when they arrive at a public hospital emergency department.

SA Health and the chief executives of the metropolitan local health networks are developing new targets in consultation with health unions which will aim for incremental improvements over the first half of 2013 for the percentage of ambulance turnarounds completed within 30 minutes and 40 minutes. I will just explain, if I can. Currently, around 65 per cent of patients arriving at public hospitals by ambulance are transferred from the care of the ambulance staff to the emergency department within 30 minutes and 85 per cent are transferred within 40 minutes.

The new targets will coincide with the appointment of a new statewide clinical lead to oversee South Australia's efforts to achieve the four-hour national emergency access target. This requires our hospitals, as members would know, to see, treat and admit or discharge 90 per cent of patients presenting at emergency departments within four hours by the end of 2015. The appointment of a clinical lead was a key recommendation of an independent review of patient access procedures at Flinders Medical Centre undertaken by one of Australia's leading emergency physicians, Dr Mark Monaghan from Western Australia.

Many recommendations from this review have been actioned, including piloting an admissions unit model at Flinders Medical Centre for six months to assist with patient flow into the hospital, and I understand this is working well. Flinders Medical Centre has also started reviewing models of care in the emergency department to prepare for a trial of criteria-led discharge of patients from the hospital by doctors and nurses, assisting with the flow of patients from the emergency department into the hospital.

A patient services attendant team member has been supporting ambulance transfers since September, and new ambulance load distribution diversion coordinators are also in place. A real-time dashboard, much beloved by the member for Morphett, has been introduced for the allocation of ambulance presentations against hospital demand in a more coordinated manner to improve patient flow.

I am pleased to report that I am advised that Flinders Medical Centre emergency department performance has improved, with 70 per cent of patients now being seen in time in September 2012, compared with 65 per cent a year earlier. Also, the percentage of time that the emergency department spent in white demand status, which is over demand, during July to September this year was between 4.1 per cent and 6.7 per cent, compared to between 12.6 per cent and 15.2 per cent the previous year.

I would like to thank the clinical staff and the administrative staff at Flinders Medical Centre for making these real improvements in the performance of the emergency department for the benefit of our patients.