48401 (2024). Hon Ginny Andersen to the Associate Minister of Health

48401 (2024). Hon Ginny Andersen to the Associate Minister of Health: What is the number of individuals who have presented to hospitals reporting family violence since 27 November 2023 to date, broken down by month and region?

Hon Casey Costello: I refer the Member to the attached tables. I am advised that the table provides information on publicly funded hospital discharges where at least one of the reported external cause codes indicated assault, sexual assault by bodily force, or family violence from 27 November 2023 to 30 April 2024, broken down by month and region. These data come from the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) and April is the latest month for which data are complete because there is a three-month lag to ensure completeness and accuracy of the data, and for the data to undergo our data quality review processes. I am further advised that these codes may not reflect the cause of the hospitalisation. For example, the codes could be recorded based on a pervious injury. Also, the three categories of assault, sexual assault by bodily force, or family violence are not independent, so a sexual assault is also recorded as an assault, and family violence may also be recorded as a sexual assault. As such care should be taken when interpreting the numbers in the attached tables. The identification of these events is based on clinical notes.