Mr BURKE - 2005-08-18
The government made a commitment to establish a HealthDirect 24-hour 1800 free call health advice service. Can you please update the House on the progress of the service?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Brennan for the question. It gives me a chance to talk about one of the great success stories from our first term of government, fulfilling one of our important election promises. Budget 2005 allocated $0.5m for the NT HealthDirect service to ensure that we could offer to Territorians 24 hours a day, seven days a week instant advice on medical matters by phone.
On 22 March 2005, we commenced the operation of NT HealthDirect, initially with calls being diverted from the five public hospital switchboards. The public launch and extensive community advertising campaign followed on 19 April 2005.
In the period 22 March to 10 April 2005, NT HealthDirect took a total of 676 calls, all of which would previously have gone directly to the Emergency Departments in our hospitals. The call volume since then has exceeded initial projections, with a total of 4766 calls taken during the first three months. This is an indication of the rapid uptake by the public of this service.
Of the total number of answered calls, 2344 were diverted from hospital Emergency Departments, primarily from Royal Darwin Hospital. This has allowed the Royal Darwin Hospital Emergency Department to decommission the medical line that operated over the previous three years, freeing up resources to enable staff to concentrate on the patients actually in front of them in the Emergency Department.
In order to ensure that NT HealthDirect continues to provide a high quality service, an NT Medical Director has been appointed to ensure the appropriateness of the clinical guidelines, review issues that arise within the service, to audit the Northern Territory records, and to have ongoing clinical input into the guideline review and development process.
The service has received a number of compliments, such as: ‘This is a wonderful service for the NT’; ‘Please pass on to whoever organised all this that you are a wonderful service’; and ‘You are the greatest, you give the best advice’.
I pay tribute to both my CEO, Robert Griew and to the departmental people who came up with such a good solution to an election promise we made. As you probably know, Madam Speaker, I have been crook for the last 24 hours, so let us review the number now. It is NT HealthDirect, 1800 186 026. All Territorians, use this number; it is a great way to get some instant medical advice.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Brennan for the question. It gives me a chance to talk about one of the great success stories from our first term of government, fulfilling one of our important election promises. Budget 2005 allocated $0.5m for the NT HealthDirect service to ensure that we could offer to Territorians 24 hours a day, seven days a week instant advice on medical matters by phone.
On 22 March 2005, we commenced the operation of NT HealthDirect, initially with calls being diverted from the five public hospital switchboards. The public launch and extensive community advertising campaign followed on 19 April 2005.
In the period 22 March to 10 April 2005, NT HealthDirect took a total of 676 calls, all of which would previously have gone directly to the Emergency Departments in our hospitals. The call volume since then has exceeded initial projections, with a total of 4766 calls taken during the first three months. This is an indication of the rapid uptake by the public of this service.
Of the total number of answered calls, 2344 were diverted from hospital Emergency Departments, primarily from Royal Darwin Hospital. This has allowed the Royal Darwin Hospital Emergency Department to decommission the medical line that operated over the previous three years, freeing up resources to enable staff to concentrate on the patients actually in front of them in the Emergency Department.
In order to ensure that NT HealthDirect continues to provide a high quality service, an NT Medical Director has been appointed to ensure the appropriateness of the clinical guidelines, review issues that arise within the service, to audit the Northern Territory records, and to have ongoing clinical input into the guideline review and development process.
The service has received a number of compliments, such as: ‘This is a wonderful service for the NT’; ‘Please pass on to whoever organised all this that you are a wonderful service’; and ‘You are the greatest, you give the best advice’.
I pay tribute to both my CEO, Robert Griew and to the departmental people who came up with such a good solution to an election promise we made. As you probably know, Madam Speaker, I have been crook for the last 24 hours, so let us review the number now. It is NT HealthDirect, 1800 186 026. All Territorians, use this number; it is a great way to get some instant medical advice.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016