Archived 10 Jan 2005 - links may not work

Welcome to the Demand Management Strategy for Victorian Public Hospitals

The Hospital Demand Management (HDM) Strategy was established in October 2000 in response to increases in demand and deterioration in access to acute public hospital services. To tackle these system-wide issues in the short to medium term the Bracks Government established the HDM Strategy with an initial investment of $582 million over four years. The strategy builds on extensive consultation with hospitals undertaken through the Patient Management Taskforce in 2000-01, and involves a new level of cooperation and collaboration between Government and health services. Following its early success, the HDM Strategy has been extended to 2006-07 with additional Government funding of $526 million.

The HDM Strategy is working to strengthen the capacity of the health system to manage increasing demand pressures in six key ways:

• Funding targeted growth in the activity performed within hospitals.
• Substitution through expansion of non-bed-based models of care.
• Encouraging Clinical Practice Change to achieve best practice.
• Funding the Hospital Admission Risk Program (HARP) to improve health outcomes and reduce the avoidable use of hospitals.
• Providing improved working conditions that attract and retain nurses.
• Expanding opportunities for people to access elective surgery.

In 2003-04 the Hospital Demand Management Strategy will continue to focus on creating capacity to meet demand for emergency and elective surgery services through funding growth, substitution, practice improvement and innovation, and new models of care that prevent hospital admission. In 2003-04 $133 million is allocated for growth, substitution and prevention, including:

• $82.7 million for extra capacity and growth, most significantly at the Northern Hospital (42 beds), Maroondah Hospital (55 beds, including extra emergency cubicles) and the Angliss Hospital (including critical care, short stay and extra emergency cubicles) and for growth in mental health services.
• $14 million for enhancing essential clinical support services, including medical retrieval, neonatal and adult intensive care, and blood services;
• $15.3 million for substitution of more appropriate service options including 30 sub-acute beds at the Angliss hospital;
• $21 million for prevention through the Hospital Admission Risk Program ($17m) and the aged and primary care sectors ($4m).

The Elective Surgery Access Strategy will continue in 2003-04. Under this strategy, both the Elective Surgery Access Service (ESAS) and designated centres initiative will continue. A waiting list management policy will also be developed in 2003-04 to set consistent expectations of health services with regard to waiting list management. In 2003-04 the HDM Strategy will fund a number of elective surgery coordinators at health services with elective surgery pressures.

New initiatives funded under HARP in 2003-04 have been selected on the basis of a competitive selection process overseen by the HARP Reference Group. In addition, the HARP Reference Group will identify strategic projects that address key HARP priorities to be piloted in selected sites. Twenty-nine projects were approved through the 2003-04 HARP funding round, making a total of 100 projects currently funded through HARP. The initiatives funded in 2003-04 will contribute to integrated systems of care for people taking account of the range of services across the care continuum. The projects build on the existing prevention base that exists within health services participating in HARP. Nine (31%) of the projects extend existing initiatives that have demonstrated their effectiveness such as projects targeted towards the management of chronic disease in the community. There has been strong collaboration across the service system with 22 (76%) of the initiatives involving funds being channelled into primary care services such as community rehabilitation and education. In almost a quarter of these, primary care agencies such as the local division of general practice is the fund holder.

In 2003-04, the HDM Strategy will continue to consolidate the lessons learnt to date by mainstreaming new models of care that have demonstrated success while promoting innovation to address emerging challenges. The current and future work carried out under the HDM Strategy acknowledges that hospital demand pressures arise from a multiplicity of factors such as population and ageing growth, advances in technology, reduced availability of GPs, the shortfall in residential beds, workforce shortages and societal change. The solution necessarily requires a systems approach.

Contact

This Web site is managed by the Hospital Demand Management Group of the Metropolitan Health and Aged Care Services Division, State Government Department of Human Services, Victoria, Australia