One in three ambulance crews were delayed for longer than 30 minutes at hospital. Over the year these delays totalled 84,680 hours of lost time, up from 78,224 last year and 58,399 the year before. The longer ambulance crews are at hospitals the less time they are available to respond to the next emergency.

The NSW Government’s defined benefit superannuation funds have had positive returns for the last three years. However, the returns fell significantly in 2011-12. Global economic conditions led to substantial volatility and uncertainty in markets creating challenges for superannuation funds’ trustees.

The following overview of audits from 2011 found agency restructures significantly impacted agency financial reporting processes, agencies are having difficulty establishing and enforcing compliance with their own policies and procedures, agencies experienced problems complying with regulations and providing adequate documentation to support their financial statements, the poor quality of some financial statements with 1,256 misstatements identified, 540 so significant they had to be corrected, deficiencies in information security exist across many agencies, computer system disaster recovery plans for financial systems not existing or outdated, do not align with agencies’ business recovery requirements, do not properly identify and assess critical systems and processes and testing is incomplete.

Neither agency (NSW Ministry of Health and NSW Police Force) demonstrated that they continued to get value for money over the life of these long term contracts or that they had effectively managed all critical elements of the three contracts we reviewed post award. This is because both agencies treated contract extensions or renewals as simply continuing previous contractual arrangements, rather than as establishing a new contract and financial commitment. Consequently, there was not a robust analysis of the continuing need for the mix and quantity of services being provided or an assessment of value for money in terms of the prices being paid.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #220 - released 1 February 2012

The department has done well to attract and retain nurses. Between 2001-02 and 2005-06 the average number of nurses employed increased to 39,804 with the annual resignation rate falling from 16 to 14 per cent. Overall, the public health sector gained 5,588 nurses, representing an average annual increase of four per cent. Despite the gains, there are indicators that there may still not be enough nurses.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #162 - released 12 December 2006

Assessment processes for older people needing to go to an Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) vary depending on the processes of the Aged Care Assessement Teams (ACAT) they see and whether or not they are in hospital. The data collected on ACAT performance was significantly revised during 2004 making comparisons with subsequent years problematic. ACATs have more responsibilities than assessing older people for residential care. It is not clear whether they have sufficient resources for this additional workload.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #160 - released 5 December 2006

NSW Health is working to increase its preparedness to respond to a major infectious disease outbreak. It is also contributing to the development of national policies, strategies and capabilities, which affect its level of preparedness. We found however little evidence that other jurisdictions were significantly further advanced than NSW in preparation and testing of plans for a pandemic. In our view NSW Health needs to balance the costs of over-preparedness and additional capacity that may never be used, against the very significant consequences of under-preparation. It needs to identify the desired level of preparedness for its Area Health Services, set measurable goals and identify key gaps between those goals and current capabilities. It needs to set clear plans for closing those gaps and then sustaining desired levels of preparedness.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #159 - released 22 November 2006

Our view is that decisions need to be made on a more strategic basis, if the Government’s aspirations for Sydney Harbour’s foreshores are to be met. At present there are high-level ‘aspirations’, but there is no overarching strategy or plan for Sydney Harbour that can guide individual decisions. Decision-making appears to be triggered when a proposal is made to dispose of a particular property. Decisions to dispose of, retain, or change the use of individual properties should be made in the context of a broader strategy, rather than on a case-by-case basis.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #119 - released 26 November 2003

We recognise that managing waiting times is a difficult and complex task. Waiting times are influenced by many factors, some of which are outside the control of NSW Health. There are, however, steps which NSW Health could, and should, take to ensure that the processes to manage waiting times are efficient and effective. By all measures used by NSW Health, patients are waiting longer for elective treatment today than six or seven years ago. In March 2003 patients admitted to elective medical or surgical treatment had waited, on average, 1.8 months, whereas in March 1997 they would have waited on average 1.1 months.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #116 - released 18 September 2003