Canberra Hospital says it's on track to pass accreditation

ACT Health said surveyors from the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards on Thursday completed an on-site assessment and indicated key standards were now met.

It comes after a scathing interim accreditation report released in April which identified 33 of 209 core criteria where standards were not met.

Of the 33 areas not up to standard, two were classed as extreme risks, six as high risks, 15 moderate risks while the remaining were rated as low risks.

The surveyors on Thursday re-assessed the 33 core actions that were previously "not met", telling ACT Health it had now met all the recommendations in the interim report.

The surveyors will finalise their report in the coming days, before providing it to the healthcare standards council for formal consideration and confirmation.

Interim Director-General Michael De’Ath said he anticipated receiving the final survey report and written notification that ACT Health has achieved accreditation next month.

“This is an excellent outcome and reflects the high quality of work being performed on a daily basis across ACT Health to improve the delivery of quality care and patient safety,” Mr De’Ath said.

“The surveyors were highly complimentary of what they observed throughout the on-site assessment and that is a credit to our many dedicated staff.”

Mr De’Ath said work had already commenced within the directorate to prepare ACT Health for the next round of accreditation assessment, which will be against new national standards that are due to come into effect from January 1, 2019.

“The accreditation process is part of a continuous cycle of improvement to ensure we deliver safe and high quality health care to the Canberra community,” he said.

“We have more than 7000 staff who come to work every day to ensure Canberrans get the quality health care they expect and deserve and I would like to congratulate all of them for their role in ACT Health achieving accreditation.”