A BLOW-out in ambulance response and emergency treatment times and a cut in federal funding have both sides of politics blaming the other for stretching services to breaking point.
The Victorian Health Service Performance Report for the June quarter, released last week, shows Western Health being under pressure in the face of a record numbers of patients.
Patients’ median time of waiting for treatment at Western Hospital’s emergency department is up almost 50 per cent from 15 minutes in the June quarter last year to 22 minutes this year.
Elective surgery levels are steady: 84 per cent of patients were treated within the government’s performance targets — up slightly from 82 per cent.
Median time to treatment for elective surgery was cut from 53 to 36 days.
Western Hospital June quarter figures show:
■ 11,655 patients — up from 11,341 in the same period last year
■ 5529 emergency department admissions — down from 5568
■ Elective surgery waiting list down from 1770 to 1157.
New chief executive Alex Cockram said Western Health was outperforming state averages in a number of areas but needed work in others. She said extra patients and higher birth figures had a flow-on effect in the emergency department, reflected in the longer waits. “There are significant challenges involved in meeting the benchmarks for treatment times, and addressing this issue is one of my highest priorities.”
Shadow parliamentary secretary for health and Williamstown MP Wade Noonan blamed the state government’s $616 million cuts to health for having a negative impact on frontline services such as ambulances.
He said the Ambulance Victoria 2011-12 annual report, tabled in Parliament last week, revealed only 75 per cent of Code 1 incidents were responded to within 15 minutes — 10 per cent short of the government’s target. “These figures reveal that ambulances are taking longer to reach car accidents and heart attack victims in need of life-saving assistance,” Mr Noonan said.
But Health Minister David Davis said the federal government funding cuts had hit hospitals hard, with contributions cut from 44 per cent of the hospital budget in 2008-09 to 39 per cent.
“Victoria’s hospitals have also been hit hard by a $6.1 billion loss in GST revenue since the Baillieu government came into office.”
