CORONAVIRUS —
ELECTIVE SURGERY
714. Ms J.M. FREEMAN to the Minister for Health:
I refer to Western Australia's
success in responding to COVID-19 that has allowed our health system to return
to normal sooner than expected. Can the minister update the house on the
government's elective surgery blitz and the impact it is having on our
health system, and outline to the house what measures our government is taking
to respond to any increase in activity in our hospitals?
Mr D.C. Nalder interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Bateman, I call you to order for the second time. You just cannot keep
chatting.
Mr D.R. Michael: He's
angry about South Fremantle.
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
He is bitter, and not just about
South Fremantle.
The SPEAKER: Members, we
will not talk football, but it was a good result!
Mr R.H. COOK: I thank the
member for the question and her ongoing support for the McGowan government and
the measures that we are putting in place to put patients first in Western Australia.
At the beginning of 2020, we had to
quickly switch our focus to protecting Western Australians from the global COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, in Western Australia
our public health response has been incredibly successful—thanks
to the work of Western Australians. As a result of our proactive and strategic
approach, we had to postpone all category 3 and non-urgent category 2 elective
surgery. I want to put on the record my thanks to the people of Western Australia for their patience and
understanding during this time. However, because of our success, member,
we are now in the position, following a $37 million
investment, to restart elective surgery as part of a blitz to ensure
that we get our elective surgery process back on track.
It is no secret that our hospitals
are busy, many are carrying out elective surgery at levels around 120 per cent
of capacity. This is an ambitious approach
to get on top of our elective surgery waitlists and deliver treatment that puts
patients first. Since the start of the elective surgery blitz, over 35 000 patients
have been admitted. For category 1 and 2, we
have returned to the same as or better than pre-COVID-19 levels. It has been a highly
successful program. Obviously, we will be focusing very much on getting
to those category 3 over-boundary cases as soon as possible.
The ongoing requirement to cohort emergency department
patients into respiratory and non-respiratory streams, however, as part of the COVID-19 response, is having a significant impact
on ED efficiency and patient flows at metropolitan hospitals. The reason behind
the high demand at our hospitals, not just at EDs, and importantly the unusual
surge that St John Ambulance had on Friday, 18 September is being investigated
by St John and the Department of Health. However, I can advise the house that
in partnership with St John Ambulance, we will be implementing St John
Ambulance hospital liaison managers at our busiest hospitals to assist the
process of transferring patients from ambulances and ensuring patient flow and
getting ambulances back on the road. This is a
similar protocol to the one we usually use in the winter months when we have
such high demand. We will be funding these officers at Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital, Royal Perth Hospital, Joondalup Health Campus and Fiona
Stanley Hospital to meet the high demand currently being experienced. For
October and November this year, the cost will be around $175 000.
We
came to the election in 2017 with a range of commitments designed to improve
the services that patients receive, including
our urgent care clinic network pilot, which has seen over 3 000 urgent care
appointments with the GP urgent care
network to the end of July 2020. Our medihotels are being developed, with one
already open at RPH and our larger commitment is making progress at
Murdoch. We are expanding the emergency departments at Joondalup Health Campus, Peel Health Campus and Sir Charles Gairdner
Hospital, where we are introducing our behavioural assessment urgent
care clinics, which we have already opened at Royal Perth Hospital. These are
all part of creating capacity in our system and ensuring that our doctors and
nurses working on the front line have the resources they need to meet the
demand from our hospitals. There is no doubt that our hospitals are under
pressure. They are doing a great job bringing us back up to speed on elective
surgery. We will continue to expand our EDs to ensure that they have the
resources they need.