The Ministers for Health, Wellbeing and Mental Health have announced that the re-accreditation process for Canberra Hospital and Health Services was now underway with initial feedback identifying a number of improvements that need to be made.
The Ministers, Meegan Fitzharris and Shane Rattenbury said ACT Health was prioritising the work in an effort to finalise the accreditation process in early July.
Ms Fitzharris said accreditation was an external review process conducted by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), and was a way of making sure organisations met a predetermined set of criteria or standards.
“The reaccreditation process is an opportunity to identify areas of improvement to ensure we continue to deliver high-quality and safe health care to the community,” Ms Fitzharris said.
She said the ACHS conducted an organisation-wide review from 19 March to 23 March, and assessed ACT Health’s implementation of the 10 National Standards.
She said the assessment occurred through provision of evidence, meetings with key staff and site visits across Canberra Hospital and Health Services.
“The ACT Government will receive a final report in coming weeks, but initial feedback has identified that of the 209 core criteria, 176 were met, while 33 require further action,” Ms Fitzharris said.
She said ACT Health was taking immediate action to address the criteria.
“While I’m concerned about the issues that have been raised, this is the purpose of a robust accreditation process,” the Minister said.
ACT Health was last surveyed by ACHS in May 2015 and was successful in achieving accreditation against the National Standards.
