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Fact sheet -The State of our public hospitals, June 2007 - Queensland

Snapshot of our public hospitals in Queensland during 2005-06.

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The State of Our Public Hospitals Report

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PDF printable version of Fact Sheet - The state of our public hospitals, June 2007 - Queensland (PDF 101 KB)

Overview

  • In 2005–06, Queensland had 177 public hospitals.
  • The number of public hospital beds, per 1,000 weighted population, fell to 2.5 in 2005–06 from 3.2 in 1998–99. Queensland was below the national figure in 2005–06.
  • In 2005–06 Queenland ranked sixth for the amount of public hospital recurrent expenditure per person in the country ($614, an increase of 50 per cent in real terms from 1998–99).
The following table shows how Queensland compared to other jurisdictions across key performance measures:

Performance measure

Ranked

Public hospital beds – number per 1,000 weighted population
4th
Public hospitals – proportion accredited
5th
Public hospital recurrent expenditure per person, weighted population
6th
Public patient admissions in all hospitals – number per 1,000 weighted population
6th
Elective surgery – percentage of people seen within the recommended time
1st
Elective surgery – percentage of admissions that waited longer than one year
1st
Elective surgery – median waiting time
1st
Emergency department – percentage seen within the recommended time
6th
Emergency department – median waiting time
6th
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Admissions

The number of public hospital admissions, per 1,000 weighted population, in Queensland decreased from 212 in 1998–99 to 186 in 2005–06.

Public hospitals

2005-06

1998-99

Queensland

Australian Total

Queensland

Australian Total

Admissions per 1,000 weighted population
186
210
212
207
  • Queensland's public hospitals admitted 750,317 patients. Of these, 91 per cent were public patients.
  • The proportion of public patient admissions in all Queensland’s hospitals (including private hospitals) was 48 per cent.
  • The average length of stay for overnight patients in Queensland’s public hospitals in 2005–06 was 6.2 days, down from 7.0 days in 1998–99. The length of stay is below the national figure.

Elective Surgery

  • In 2005–06, more than 106,300 patients underwent some form of elective surgery procedure as public patients in Queensland.
  • Overall, 86 per cent of public elective surgery patients in 2005–06 were seen within the recommended time.
  • The median waiting time for elective surgery in the state was 25 days, seven days shorter than the national median waiting time.

Elective surgery

2005-06

1998-99

Queensland (%)

Australian Total (%)

Queensland (%)

Australian Total (%)

Overall percentage seen in recommended time
86
81
92
90
Category 1: within 30 days
86
83
96
91
Category 2: within 90 days
84
74
91
86
Category 3: within 12 months
90
88
91
93
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Emergency Departments

  • In 2005–06, there were more than 816,000 emergency presentations to larger public hospital emergency departments in Queensland.
  • Of those, around 60 per cent were treated within the clinically appropriate period, which is below the national average of 69 per cent.
  • The median waiting time to be seen was 31 minutes, seven minutes longer than the national median.
The following table shows how Queensland performed in 2005–06 across the five emergency department triage categories:

Emergency departments

2005-06

1998-99

Queensland (%)

National (%)

Overall percentage seen in recommended time
60
69
Triage Category 1: Need for resuscitation
100
99
Triage Category 2: Emergency
66
77
Triage Category 3: Urgent
55
64
Triage Category 4: Semi–urgent
58
65
Triage Category 5: Non–urgent
86
87