Report highlights

NSW Health again met targets across all triage categories

NSW Health, on average, met the emergency department triage response time targets across all triage categories in 2015–16 for the third consecutive year. This is a key finding of a report released today by the New South Wales Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford.

Ms Crawford said, 'Overall, NSW hospitals are doing well meeting triage targets despite the continued increase in emergency department attendances'.

Emergency treatment performance not improving

NSW Health maintained its overall emergency treatment performance in 2015–16, but did not achieve its target of 81 per cent of patients leaving emergency departments within four hours. The State average emergency treatment performance was 74.2 per cent (74.3 per cent in 2014–15). 'The rate of patients leaving NSW emergency departments within four hours is not improving despite this being a priority of the Premier', the Auditor-General said.

Financial reporting continues to improve

The Health cluster continues to improve the quality of financial reporting in recent years. The number of misstatements has fallen from 109 in 2013–14 to 35 in 2015–16. 'Health entities controlled by the Ministry of Health continued to submit financial statements for audit well ahead of the statutory deadlines', Ms Crawford commented.

Workforce management and control issues continue

Unapproved employee timesheets is a continuing problem for health entities. Weak approval controls are increasing the risk of staff claiming and being paid for hours they have not worked. They are also resulting in high volumes of roster adjustments, manual pays, salary overpayments and instances of leave not being recorded accurately.

Ambulances responding and patients transferred to emergency departments faster

NSW Ambulance response times for potentially life threatening cases improved to 11.0 minutes in 2015–16 (11.2 minutes in 2014–15). 'Despite improving, response times still remain slower than the target of 10 minutes', Ms Crawford commented.

The percentage of patients transferred from ambulances to hospital emergency departments in the 30 minute ‘transfer of care’ timeframe also improved in 2015–16. The State average 'transfer of care' performance of 87.6 per cent (84.5 per cent in 2014–15) is still below the 90 per cent target.

Further information

Barry Underwood, Executive Officer, on 9275 7220 or 0403 073 664 and email barry.underwood@audit.nsw.gov.au.

In a report released today, the NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford provides a snapshot of reported fraud in the NSW public sector and an analysis of NSW Government agencies’ fraud controls based on a survey of 102 agencies.

The survey found that:

• the total number of reported fraud cases is nearly double that of a similar survey conducted in 2012. Agencies reported 1,077 frauds in this survey compared to 562 in the previous survey, with a total reported value of $10 million. The largest frauds are in procurement

• measures to control fraud are improving. Agencies self-assessed their fraud control measures as either highly effective or effective in 83 per cent of cases – up from 80 per cent in 2012, 71 per cent in 2009 and 50 per cent in 2004.

‘The report highlights issues and opportunities for agencies to improve their fraud control. Also, instituting a fraud control policy for New South Wales will help promote best practice and a common approach to fraud control across the sector’, Ms Crawford said.

Fraud awareness training and preventative fraud controls, such as fraud risk assessments and pre-employment screening, remain areas for improvement.

The Auditor-General recommends NSW Treasury develop fraud control policy for the NSW public sector that:

• explicitly states the government’s commitment to fraud control
• clearly articulates the government’s expectations of agencies to develop and implement fraud control measures.

The profile of the average internal perpetrator is male, between 41-50 years old, holding a non-managerial position and working for the agency for more than five years.

Further information

Please contact Barry Underwood on 9275 7220 or 0403 073 664; email barry.underwood@audit.nsw.gov.au
 

New South Wales has a lower rate of foodborne illness than the national average. This reflects some good practices in the NSW Food Authority’s approach to monitoring food safety standards. It also is a factor of the long-standing commitment by local councils’ to ensuring retail food businesses meet these standards.

To ensure foodborne illness remains low, the Authority needs to better monitor its arrangements with councils which inspect retail food businesses on its behalf, and receive additional and more timely information from councils on compliance with food safety standards.

These are the key findings of a report released today by the NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford.

The Authority provides guidance and training to councils and retail food businesses to improve their knowledge and compliance with food safety standards. It has also established a standard food safety inspection checklist and guidelines to encourage consistent inspection practices across the State.

However, the arrangements the Authority has with councils to inspect and monitor around 40,000 retail food businesses do not clearly define roles and responsibilities. Nor is the Authority properly monitoring the consistency and quality of regulatory activities conducted by councils. Consequently, there is a risk that food safety inspection and enforcement activities are not applied consistently to ensure all retail food businesses fully comply with food safety standards.

The Authority does not validate the data provided by councils on compliance with food safety standards. It reported an annual compliance rate of more than 90 per cent for retail food businesses in each of the last three years.

Other gaps in the Authority’s approach to monitoring councils’ food safety inspection and enforcement activities include:

• guidelines for applying the risk-based model are not up-to-date

• current performance indicators are not sufficient to monitor the consistency and quality of the regulatory activities

• networking meetings and training programs organised by the Authority are not always well attended by councils.

Further information

Please contact Barry Underwood on 9275 7220 or 0403 073 664; email: barry.underwood@audit.nsw.gov.au