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Reports

Published

Actions for Mental Health Workforce

Mental Health Workforce

Health
Management and administration
Workforce and capability

Compared to the mental health workforce in most other Australian states and territories, the NSW workforce is more concentrated in acute hospitals for adult patients and is marginally smaller for its population. NSW Health increased its mental health workforce between 2006 and 2009. It has improved the geographical distribution of clinicians across the state to more closely match need. It has also increased the number of staff working with younger and ol

Published

Actions for Volume Eleven 2010 focus on Health and Ports

Volume Eleven 2010 focus on Health and Ports

Health
Finance

The report includes comments on his financial audits of NSW Government health agencies for 2009-10. It found Health Support Services need to agree the respective responsibilities for implementing effective standardised internal controls with its customers and the Department. Control deficiencies have increased the risk that irregularities are not prevented or detected. The standardised internal controls should be implemented at Health Support Services an

Published

Actions for Helicopter Emergency Medical Service Contract

Helicopter Emergency Medical Service Contract

Health
Compliance
Management and administration
Procurement

We found that the contract process was satisfactory. Ambulance data show that the performance of CHC is meeting contract requirements with the exception of the availability of the Wollongong helicopter. Ambulance’s ability to transport patients to the right hospital at the right time has improved. However the cost of the new Greater Sydney helicopter contract is three times higher than before.   Parliamentary reference - Report number #206 -

Published

Actions for Volume One 2010

Volume One 2010

Planning
Finance
Health
Justice
Environment
Financial reporting
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration

The report includes comments on his annual audit of entitlements paid to Members of NSW Parliament and financial audits of WorkCover, Justice Health, Waste Recycling Processing Corporation and some other NSW Government agencies.   In his audit the Auditor-General had called for a system to be developed to ensure accrued loyalty/reward benefits are used to reduce Members’ parliamentary business travel expenditure, rather than be forfeited when a Memb

Published

Actions for Managing Forensic Analysis: Fingerprints and DNA

Managing Forensic Analysis: Fingerprints and DNA

Justice
Health
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Procurement
Risk
Service delivery
Shared services and collaboration
Workforce and capability

Fingerprints and DNA play a critical role in solving crime and serving justice, but DNA evidence can result in more arrests, more prosecutions and more convictions. We found that while police effectively prioritise fingerprint evidence, it could better manage the screening and analysis of both fingerprint and DNA evidence to reduce delays.   Parliamentary reference - Report number #195 - released 10 February 2010

Published

Actions for Helping Aboriginal Defendants through MERIT

Helping Aboriginal Defendants through MERIT

Justice
Health
Management and administration
Service delivery

The Magistrates Early Referral into Treatment program (MERIT) diverts adult defendants with drug problems from the local court into a drug treatment program. Recent studies of MERIT outcomes indicate that MERIT is a highly appropriate intervention program for Aboriginal defendants. It has improved the health of participants, including significant reduction in drug use and significant improvement in mental health. Better justice outcomes include lower rat

Published

Actions for Tackling Cancer with Radiotherapy

Tackling Cancer with Radiotherapy

Health
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Procurement
Service delivery
Workforce and capability

Overall radiotherapy services are managed in a reasonably efficient and effective manner. Much is being done to further improve efficiency and effectiveness, and more can be done. While New South Wales has a number of well-established radiotherapy treatment centres, the high capital cost limits their availability in all hospitals. Some patients need to travel long distances and be away from their homes for up to seven weeks. The projected growth in deman

Published

Actions for Grants Administration

Grants Administration

Premier and Cabinet
Treasury
Health
Community Services
Planning
Compliance
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Procurement
Risk

We found no significant difference in the funding of government and opposition electorates. However, more money was given to electorates that were safely held by the major parties. These seats received $1.29 for every dollar given to marginal and independent seats with government marginals getting the least. Electorates also receive different levels of funding according to which region they are in. Such variations may reflect valid agency objectives such

Published

Actions for Code Red: Hospital Emergency Departments

Code Red: Hospital Emergency Departments

Health
Service delivery
Shared services and collaboration

All three hospitals followed the Department of Health’s guidelines for judging capacity and had systems in place to notify hospital staff and ambulance crews of changes in status. We found discrepancies in the records kept by all three hospitals when compared to the records maintained by the Department of Health. Our view however, is that these records do not need to be a perfect match for the intended purpose, which is to guide ambulance crews to the sh

Published

Actions for Waiting Times for Elective Surgery in Public Hospitals

Waiting Times for Elective Surgery in Public Hospitals

Health
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Service delivery

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