$500,000 to help ensure quality HEALTH SYSTEM

The ACT Government is providing funding of $500,000 to help maintain the ACT health system’s quality infrastructure.

“Provision of safe health care is our number one priority,” Health Minister Simon Corbell said today.

Mr Corbell said the allocation of $500,000 would build on current capacity and ensure a consistent, Territory-wide approach to quality and safety.

This would include the provision of effective infrastructure for reporting, analysing and acting on adverse events essential to maintaining support for clinical audit, training, culture change and systems of continuous quality improvement across the public health care sector. 

Mr Corbell said ACT Health had implemented a range of risk management strategies to reduce the likelihood of adverse events following a review of neurosurgery services at The Canberra Hospital last year.

The review was led by Dr Bruce Barraclough, Royal North Shore Hospital and Chair of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care, a world leader in clinical governance.

“Significant work has been undertaken by ACT Health and The Canberra Hospital to develop stronger links between clinical operations and clinical audit,” Mr Corbell said. 

“These include a Clinical Governance Framework that provides explicit lines of accountability within a clearly defined management structure and allows for facilitation, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and feedback of the service provided.

“The ACT Health Clinical Council, established in May last year, oversees this framework and the implementation of the clinical governance strategic plan.

“The ACT Clinical Audit Committee works to improve patient care and outcomes through the systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of evidence-based best practice health care to improve service delivery.”
Statement ends