The Tasmanian Health Service did not achieve its target of most patients departing the emergency department within eight hours in any quarter at any of its four hospitals in the last financial year.
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It also did not reach an ambulance offload delay target, of 100 per cent offloaded within 30 minutes, at any hospital in any quarter.
However, a target of offloading 85 per cent of ambulances within 15 minutes was achieved in all but one quarter at the LGH.
The organisation’s performance in its first year of operation was revealed in the THS 2015-16 annual report. The THS was created in July 2015.
The THS exceeded its baseline elective surgery admissions target. However, it did not achieve targets regarding maximum wait times or Category 1 elective surgery patients being admitted within the recommended time.
During 2015-2016 there were 1920 incidents reported to Workplace Health and Safety by THS staff that included exposure to verbal threats, physical assaults, inappropriate or aggressive behaviours and/or assault with weapon.
The THS spent $1.3 billion in the 2015-16, the annual report revealed. The service recorded 153,693 Emergency Department attendances and 10,106 emergency surgeries.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson said an emergency response time increase of 48 seconds had been noted.
However, Mr Ferguson attributed the increase to a change in how response times were calculated.
He said time took processing the call was included, and there was no indication that ambulances were taking longer to reach places.
Mr Ferguson said the government increased paramedic numbers by 33.32 full time equivalent positions.
He said front-line staff numbers had increased with “the employment of 30 FTE allied health professionals since last year and 32.63 FTE doctors”.
The THS report revealed the number of FTE nurses had increased by 141.15 since 2013-14.
The number of Health and Human Services FTE staff decreased by 59 positions in the same period.
The THS supported 2581 alcohol and drug services clients, and there were 148,873 occasions of service recorded by mental health services.
The Department of Health and Human Services 2015-16 annual report showed the department’s budgeted expenditure was $1.696 billion.
The department received 28 stress worker compensation claims, an increase of eight stress claims from the previous year.
The DHHS received 116 workers compensation claims during 2015-16, decreasing from 129 claims in 2014-15. Total claim costs for 2015-16 were $4.93 million, an increase of approximately $755,000 from the previous year when total claim costs were $4.17 million.
The report said 38.34 per cent of the department’s budget output was distributed to the Tasmanian Health Service, 21.91 per cent went to Human Services and 6.73 per cent went to Children’s Services. The DHHS recorded a total revenue of $1,451,489,000 from income and other transactions in the 2015-16 financial year.
The DHHS annual report said the organisation would continue supporting the ongoing implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the 2016-17 financial year. Mr Ferguson said that the two annual reports, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, demonstrated “the progress the Hodgman Government is making to improve our health system”.