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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-27 Daily Xml
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EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT REFORMS

52 Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (1 June 2010).

1. What reforms will be undertaken in emergency departments, sub-acute services, indigenous health services and health workforce development activity based funding?

2. Will these reforms generate savings and if so, how much is expected and how many full-time equivalent staff will be reduced as a result of these reforms?

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): I am advised

1. There are a range of reform initiatives currently being undertaken by SA Health in relation to services to support emergency departments, sub acute care, Indigenous health and workforce development.

Emergency department clinicians have been engaged to provide advice on enhancing services in emergency departments. In particular, service redesign activities have been undertaken to improve the number of emergency patients being treated in clinically appropriate times.

Statewide Service Plans for Palliative Care, Older Person and Stroke Services that have been developed by clinicians, will inform reforms in sub-acute services. The plans have all advocated for establishment and/or expansion of integrated services, which will operate across primary, chronic and acute care services. The implementation of these reforms is being progressed through regional health services.

The State Government is investing $53.8 million into the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health Outcomes. A State implementation plan has been approved detailing a range of strategies to be implemented that address the five priority areas outlined in the National Partnership Agreement. These include:

tackling smoking

primary health care services that will deliver services for Indigenous people fixing the gaps and improving the patient journey

healthy transition to adulthood

making Indigenous health everyone's business.

The COAG Indigenous Early Childhood Development National Partnership Agreement has also been established to improve outcomes for Indigenous children in their early years and it contains three elements:

enhancement of Children and Family Centres, which is administered by the Department of Education and Children's Services

improve access to and use of antenatal care services by young Indigenous mothers and support young Indigenous women to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health

increased access to and use of maternal and child health services by Indigenous families.

A national approach to health workforce reform, through the now established Health Workforce Australia, will deliver significant benefits in the consolidation of jurisdictional efforts. Examples of the benefits anticipated will be the development of:

enhanced undergraduate clinical training and increased clinical supervision programs

increases and improvements in simulated learning environments with a focus on accessibility to regional and rural centres

consolidation of jurisdictional international recruitment programs to a single program covering all health professionals

enhanced workforce design strategies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health workforce.

Finally, the National Activity Based Funding initiative aims to develop a national framework and model to facilitate activity based funding in the hospital sector. Eight work streams representing the main patient types (for example inpatient, outpatient, emergency department patients) and functions (for example research and teaching) have been identified and work is underway to develop an agreed national approach to the classification and costing of these services. This will provide the basis for the future funding of hospitals should COAG agree to implement a national activity based funding system.

2. These reform initiatives are, in the main, about enhancing and expanding services to our communities and to ensure that we have the right staff in the right place to provide the right care, and not about generating savings.

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