Ms ROSOL – I have some questions around patients presenting to emergency departments. Minister, how many triage –
Mr BARNETT – Sorry, I will interrupt. We have an answer for you on the AT one. You can have it now or after the question.
Ms ROSOL – How about I ask these questions and then – if that’s okay? How many triage category 2 patients were subject to transfer of care delays longer than 15 minutes in 2023‑24?
Mr BARNETT – I’m always happy to talk about transfer of care delay because there are incremental improvements. We’re very pleased to see those developments since – well, in the last 12 months, there are considerable benefits for the Tasmanian community with more paramedics on the streets and in our communities.
For the detail around that question, I will pass to the chief executive, who’s sitting on my right.
Mr EMERY – Ms Rosol, in terms of breakdown by triage category, we may need to further cross‑match some data between Ambulance Tasmania and the emergency departments themselves, but if I could speak briefly to the performance improvements wholesale and then pick up on the triage category aspect shortly.
In terms of ambulance presentations more broadly, in 2023‑24 there were 53,183 ambulance presentations across the four major emergency departments in the state.
Of those, 62 per cent were transferred within 15 minutes and 70.9 per cent were transferred within 30 minutes. The number delayed in total as a count was 20,152 and the hours of transfer of care delay was 27,398. What I would say is when you look at that compared to the previous year, despite an increase in the number of ambulance presentations, there was a modest increase in the percentage transferred within 15 minutes and a modest increase in the percentage transferred within 30 minutes, but as the minister mentioned, a reduction of 9276 hours of ramping, and what I think perhaps is a more compelling statistic in this is that if you look back four years to 2020‑21, there are 800 less hours ramped than even four years ago. Despite the increase in ambulance presentations over the last four years, the transfer of care work and the shared commitment around access and flow across the Tasmanian Health Service has resulted in a 9000‑hour reduction in one year and more than 800 less hours of ramping than even four years ago – a very significant improvement over the last four years.
Ms ROSOL – Can I just clarify the length of time because you’re talking about the reduction in delay? I understand that sometimes by some, it’s measured in 15 minutes and by some, it’s measured as 30 minutes. What are you referring to there, please?
Mr BARNETT – Yes, we’re looking at best practice across the nation, but I’ll let the chief executive speak to that point.
Mr EMERY – The service plan that focuses on transfer of care times has two measures. One is percentage transferred within 15 minutes, the other is percentage transferred within 30 minutes, and those are the numbers that I referred to today. As the minister mentioned, we’re working towards best practice of 30 minutes and as a point of clarity, that is about ambulance arrival at the hospital. Previously we may have measured these data as they related to when an ambulance was triaged, but that was problematic because there could at times be delays in that triage time. Now, there is a consensus view that the arrival of an ambulance at the hospital is the starting point for that count and the transfer of care occurs when the patient is moved into a clinically appropriate space within a target of 30 minutes.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you. Back to the original question, was that something that you agreed to take on notice? How many triage category 2 patients were subject to transfer of care delays longer than 15 minutes in 2023‑24? I think you said that you would take that on notice.
Mr BARNETT -Yes, we’d be happy to take that on notice.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you. Just a question to you, minister. It was reported by the ABC in June that Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine at the University of Tasmania Dr Viet Tran has plans for the creation of a clinical quality care register that would track patients’ experiences in hospital, so from the ED through the hospital, to identify common issues and population‑level trends. Is the Department of Health supporting this project? If so, could you explain how?
Mr BARNETT – Thank you very much. I will pass to the acting secretary, but just to pay a commendation to Viet Tran for his leadership in emergency medicine and his involvement as the co-convener and supporter of our Health Senate that looks at health reforms in Tasmania. He’s doing an absolutely terrific job in that regard. I have a very high regard for his work. I think he’s also received an award in recent times, which I’d like to acknowledge today at this hearing. I’ll pass to the acting secretary.
Mr WEBSTER – All research goes through a process of approval and through that research application it’s identified how it’s funded, what support is required from the department or from the THS. In relation to this one, the key thing is to giving Viet the support that he needs to get access to the data and access to the ward-level data that follow a patient. Our key role in this particular piece is making sure that all of our data are available so that research can track the patient and make sense of those. In terms of research, we have MOUs and we’re about to sign a new one with the University of Tasmania, but we have agreements with a range of universities to support these types of processes.
Viet, in announcing that, had an approval to go ahead with it and we’ll give him the support from within the agency, but he also said he’s supported from within the university.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you.
MR BARNETT – I think we have an answer to some earlier questions – one from the chief executive of Ambulance Tasmania to Ms Rosol and I think the Acting Secretary also has an answer. Would you like to go first?
Mr WEBSTER – Through you, minister, Ms Rosol asked for the number of patients in category 2 (under 15 minutes) transfer of care delay and the number of patients within 30 minutes transfer of care.
Category 2 – this is a triage category 2 – there were 17,085 arrivals at our hospitals in 2023‑24; 9572 or 56 per cent were transferred into the care of the hospital within 15 minutes, and 11,665 patients were transferred to the care of our hospitals within 30 minutes (68.3 per cent). Does that make sense?
Now, that is up. So 2022‑23, the percentages were 53 per cent and 63.6 per cent, and the number of cases increased by – I think that works out at about 1000.
