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Home > Ministers > The Hon Nicola Roxon MP - Minister for Health and Ageing > Media Hub > MyHospitals to Launch with Public Hospitals from all States

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PDF printable version of MyHospitals to Launch with Public Hospitals from all States (PDF 21 KB)

1 November 2010

The MyHospitals website will be online in December with information about public hospitals in all states and territories– including Western Australia.

Every Australian will be able to find clear, comparable and user-friendly information about Australian public hospitals and some private hospitals thanks to a new willingness from Western Australia to participate in the website.

The website was a condition of the health reform agreement at the COAG meeting in April, which all states and territories except Western Australia have signed.

“The Federal Opposition caused a delay on work on the website during the caretaker period, meaning implementation has been delayed,” Minister Roxon said. “However this delay enabled time to reach agreement between the Commonwealth and the Western Australian Government for their local hospitals to be included.

“I am pleased that Minister Hames and I have reached an agreement for the Western Australia data to be uploaded – I believe it will prove really useful for patients in Western Australia.

“At the click of a mouse, all Australians will be able to access the latest nationally-consistent data on their local hospital.

“Some of the people who will benefit include holidaymakers who will be able to check services at the hospital closest to their destination, and expectant mums who can check whether their nearest hospital has an obstetrics and maternity unit.

And people in Perth and all over the country will be able to see how their local hospital compares against the national average waiting times for emergency treatment and a range of elective surgery procedures.

“MyHospitals will show how that hospital performed compared to national average waiting times for elective surgery and emergency department care, list the medical services provided, bed numbers and if outpatient services, such as allied health, are provided.

“It will enable all Australians to see which hospitals are doing well and which hospitals may need more targeted assistance to help lift their performance.

Measuring and publicly reporting on the accessibility, performance, quality and safety of our hospitals is a key component of our health reform plans.

The website will work together with other elements of our health reforms to improve the performance of hospitals, including:

• The creation of Local Hospital Networks;
• Activity based funding to ensure hospitals get paid for the services they provide;
• A new performance framework to be monitored by a new National Performance Authority; and
• New targets for elective surgery and emergency department performance, including the elective surgery guarantee.

All elements of these reforms are being implemented in seven states and territories, not including Western Australia.

We are also working with private hospitals to include their information on the website and approximately 50 private hospitals will be available online initially, to grow over time.

The website is being developed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and will launch in December with newly verified data on the performance of public hospitals in Emergency Department waiting times and elective surgery waits from the 2009/10 financial year.

Due to the new inclusion of WA, their hospitals may initially start in December with 2008/09 emergency department and elective surgery data until new statistics can be verified. Also, additional performance measures will be developed for inclusion on the website over time.

The range of information available on MyHospitals will continue to be developed in the future, including providing data on private hospitals and reporting data for each hospital against a range of safety and quality measures.

For all media inquiries, please contact the Minister's Office on 02 6277 7220