Hospital on healthy course

THE DARLING Downs Hospital and Health Service (DDHHS) has been given a clean bill of health with its second annual report recently tabled in Parliament outlining a number of significant health care improvements, especially in the Southern Downs, together with a healthy surplus.
Darling Downs Hospital and Health board chair Mike Horan said the achievements detailed in the report were a testament to how the DDHHS vision – to be trusted to deliver excellence in rural and regional health care – had been brought closer through the year.
“We have delivered 104 per cent of the activity we were contracted to in the service agreement with the Department of Health,” he said.
“This is in the form of extra operations, outpatient appointments and more people treated in our emergency departments.”
Mr Horan said it was particularly pleasing to note some significant health care improvements in health care for Southern Downs residents.
“We were also able make key appointments for the Southern Downs, including a new principal dentist based in Warwick,” Mr Horan said.
“There was increased surgical activity at Warwick Hospital,and it was particularly pleasing to report that both Warwick Hospital (94.5 per cent) and Stanthorpe Hospital (97 per cent) exceeded National Emergency Access Target (NEAT). This refers to the percentage of patients being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of presenting to emergency.
“In 2013-’14 we were also able to allocate $1.2 million for an extensive refurbishment of the Stanthorpe Hospital Maternity Unit.”
The assistance DDHHS was able to provide under the Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme (PTSS) was another highlight of 2013-14.
In the Southern Downs alone, DDHHS spent more than $1.9 million, helping 3,540 patients, across an area covering Goondiwindi, Texas, Inglewood, Millmerran, Stanthorpe and Warwick,” Mr Horan said.
Mr Horan said the Board looked forward to reinvesting the proceeds of this year’s surplus (more than $17.5 million) into improved patient care across the DDHHS.
“We strive continually to provide better patient outcomes, so as we did last year, we will put a large percentage of those surplus funds back into more surgeries, improved equipment and upgraded facilities,” he said.