Victorian health system falters

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDSep 13 2010

In the latest annual report from Your Hospitals, that rates the efficiency of hospitals, Victorian hospitals have fared badly. It shows that more than 250,000 emergency department patients were not treated on time in the past year - an increase on four years ago.

More than a thousand patients are unhappy with their treatment in the state's hospitals. It reveals that nearly 90,000 Victorians were left on trolleys in emergency departments for more than eight hours. In elective surgery, the number of patients who waited longer than benchmark times increased from about 22,000 in 2008-09 to more than 23,000 last year. It is the first year in a decade that hospitals have reported such a failure.

There are nine key performance targets of which the state’s top hospitals did not meet five. This is worse than last year. According to the report the worst-performing hospitals were in Melbourne's western suburbs, with Sunshine Hospital rated the least popular. Almost half of patients were not admitted to a hospital bed within the required period.

The Opposition health spokesman David Davis pointed out that the Brumby Government was failing in this aspect with almost 25 per cent of patients “dissatisfied” with their hospital treatment. He promised that the coalition government would publish outpatient waiting times and hospital-initiated elective surgery postponements when elected.

Even the Australian Medical Association has warned that the Victorian health system is going backwards and patients are waiting longer for access to basic medical care because of an acute shortage of beds to meet Victoria's growing population. To this Health Minister Daniel Andrews admitted improvements were needed across parts of the system. Mr. Andrews said, “We want to provide better outcomes…More money will mean more patients get treated quickly. We always need to look for ways to improve and to do better.” AMA Victoria president Dr Harry Hemley said, “We have seen a steady increase in the number of Victorians being let down by our public hospitals.”

This April Mr. Andrews revealed that five hospitals had failed to deliver care to urgent surgery patients on time in the six months to December, and that he was confident he had put in measures to stop the trend. However this report that covers six months up to June shows dissatisfying results. Mr. Andrews assured that none of the patients had sustained adverse outcomes and that investments were being made to increase the hospitals' capacity for urgent surgery.