16 November 2005

Auditor General recognises NSW Health achievements

NSW Minister for Health John Hatzistergos today welcomed the Auditor General's report which showed that the NSW health system was performing well in relation to other states.

"I welcome independent scrutiny of the performance of our health system," Mr Hatzistergos said.

"While we are performing well in a number of areas, there is always room to make further improvements. We are working hard to ensure more patients get better care, faster," he said.

"As highlighted on page 52 of the Auditor General's Report, the triage figures indicate that NSW continued to equal or better the national average in four of the five triage categories.

"NSW hospitals continue to treat 100 per cent of the most seriously ill, triage category 1 patients, within the designated 2 minutes timeframe.

"Improvements in emergency department triage performance in the other triage categories remains one of our highest priorities.

"A number of strategies have been put in place to improve emergency department performance. These include:

• $227 million has been allocated this year to boost bed numbers by over 800 across our hospitals and reduce occupancy rates
• Extra nurses have been employed in NSW. There has been a 2.5 per cent increase in nurses to 35,000 (year to date June 2005 compared with June 2004).
• All hospitals have developed demand management plans to assist in receiving patients from ambulances, even in peak periods.

The statewide Emergency Care Taskforce is working on new models of care for faster and safer patient flows. These include fast-tracking lower complexity patients and innovative assessments of older patients and mental health patients through emergency departments.

In relation to comments about creditor payments, Mr Hatzistergos said NSW Health was a large organisation at around 1.2 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product with a record 2005/06 expenditure over $11 billion including a capital works program over $600 million.

"This year NSW Health will purchase an estimated $2.8 billion of goods and services which represents around $7.7 million every day of the year," he said.

"I expect area health services to pay suppliers' invoices in line with contract terms."

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au