Elective surgery in Canberra a waiting game

According to the latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) people living in Canberra wait on average 72 days for elective surgery which is more than double the national average of 34 days.

The latest annual AIHW report (#14) gives Australian hospital statistics for the period 2007-08 and shows that public hospital emergency department visits are increasing at a rate faster than other hospital services - to more than 7 million - an average annual increase of close to 5% since 2003-04.

The AIHW report shows there were 7.9 million hospital admissions (public and private) in 2007-08, with an average annual increase of 3.6% since 2003-04 - 60% of admissions were to public hospitals, in the main for medical care but private hospital admissions also increased 4.3% over the same period, 41% of which was for surgical care.

The report also showed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians were admitted to hospital at two and a half times the rate of other Australians and they waited longer for elective surgery than other Australians.

The average waiting time for elective surgery in public hospitals for all Australians was 34 days in 2007-08, 2 days longer than the previous year and 6 days more than in 2003-04, while the shortest average waiting time was 12 days for cardiothoracic surgery, and the longest was 68 days for eye surgery.

Almost 70% of people presenting to emergency departments were seen in the recommended time for their urgency category and almost 100% of the most urgent cases were seen within the recommended 2 minutes.

In 2007-08, public hospital expenditure was $28.9 billion - 6.1% greater than in 2006-07 but about 62% of this expenditure was for salaries.