ELECTIVE SURGERY — CATEGORY 1 PATIENTS
367. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the minister's
comments in this place yesterday regarding elective surgery and that the
average number of days before a category 1 patient is seen has risen by one day
in the last two or three years and they are still being seen within the
clinically appropriate time. Can the minister explain why the number of
category 1 over-boundary cases—that is, patients who are waiting longer
than the clinically appropriate time of 30 days—has increased from 12.5
per cent in April 2021 to 28.3 per cent, or almost one-third of cases, in 2022;
and how these people are being seen within the clinically appropriate times the
minister alluded to yesterday?
Ms A.
SANDERSON replied:
Yes, I can explain it. I also said
yesterday that there has been a slight increase in the out-of-boundary cases,
because the average length of waiting time and the percentage of
out-of-boundary cases is different. One has to look at the data; it is complex. There has been a slight
increase because we are in the middle of a COVID surge. Over the month of May, we had 3 300 staff furloughed. That is
why. We had a short, sharp, planned six-week scale-down of elective
surgery. During that time, we saw an exponential increase in COVID cases. That was
planned for and expected. It is not ideal,
and of course we do not want to do it, but if we compare with other states the
situation Western Australia is in with our elective surgery, furlough
numbers and ability to scale up elective surgery whilst in a COVID surge, we
can see that we are in a far better place. We have ramped up elective surgeries
to, depending on the hospital, anywhere from 50 per cent to 60 per cent of full
capacity of elective surgery categories 1, 2 and 3. We are in a far better place
than any other state.
That is not to say that some people
have not had to wait a little longer, and we appreciate their patience. In many
cases, these operations are sometimes
cancelled for reasons outside the control of the hospital—for example,
because of cancellations by patients, or through sick leave of staff and
surgeons. A significant number of operating theatre nurses have also been on furlough or had caring arrangements. That is
why there is a small increase in out-of-boundary cases. It is different from what the member is claiming, which is about
the average number of days waiting for surgery. That is still well above the rates for any other state or territory. The
average number of days has increased by one day over the last two years.