Performance towards the National Health Partnership Agreement targets WA signed the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services in 2011. The objective of the agreement is to drive major improvements in public hospital service delivery and better health outcomes for Australians. It includes the National Elective Surgery Target (NEST) and the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT). National Elective Surgery Target (NEST) Elective surgery is a term used to describe surgery that is medically necessary, but can be delayed for at least 24 hours. The NEST commenced on 1 January 2012 and focuses on two areas. Under NEST Part 1 of the national agreement, WA has a target to increase the percentage of elective surgery admissions for all urgency categories. Under NEST Part 2 of the national agreement, WA has a target to reduce the average overdue days waited beyond the clinically desirable times for each urgency category. The urgency categories and clinically desirable times are: category 1 admitted within 30 days – category 2 admitted within 90 days – category 3 admitted within 365 days. – Part 1: Treating patients within the clinically recommended time WA Health is required to progressively increase the number of elective surgeries performed within the clinically recommended time by 2016. From 2010 to 2013, for categories 1, 2 and 3, the number of patients treated within clinically recommended times has gradually increased by approximately 9.7 per cent, 12.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively (see Table 6). From 1 January to 31 December 2013, 95.9 per cent of urgency category 1 patients were admitted within 30 days, just the set target of 100 per cent, and 97.7 per cent of urgency category 3 patients were admitted within the recommended 365 days, also just below the set target of 98.0 per cent. For urgency category 2 patients, 89.4 per cent were admitted within the recommended 90 days, which is above the set target of 88.0 percent (see Table 6). WA Health is performing above baseline for all urgency categories and above the 2013 target for urgency category 2.
Performance towards the National Health Partnership Agreement targets WA signed the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services in 2011. The objective of the agreement is to drive major improvements in public hospital service delivery and better health outcomes for Australians. It includes the National Elective Surgery Target (NEST) and the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT). National Elective Surgery Target (NEST) Elective surgery is a term used to describe surgery that is medically necessary, but can be delayed for at least 24 hours. The NEST commenced on 1 January 2012 and focuses on two areas. Under NEST Part 1 of the national agreement, WA has a target to increase the percentage of elective surgery admissions for all urgency categories. Under NEST Part 2 of the national agreement, WA has a target to reduce the average overdue days waited beyond the clinically desirable times for each urgency category. The urgency categories and clinically desirable times are: category 1 – admitted within 30 days category 2 – admitted within 90 days category 3 – admitted within 365 days. Part 1: Treating patients within the clinically recommended time WA Health is required to progressively increase the number of elective surgeries performed within the clinically recommended time by 2016. From 2010 to 2013, for categories 1, 2 and 3, the number of patients treated within clinically recommended times has gradually increased by approximately 9.7 per cent, 12.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively (see Table 6). From 1 January to 31 December 2013, 95.9 per cent of urgency category 1 patients were admitted within 30 days, just the set target of 100 per cent, and 97.7 per cent of urgency category 3 patients were admitted within the recommended 365 days, also just below the set target of 98.0 per cent. For urgency category 2 patients, 89.4 per cent were admitted within the recommended 90 days, which is above the set target of 88.0 percent (see Table 6). WA Health is performing above baseline for all urgency categories and above the 2013 target for urgency category 2.