June 2002

Ambulance bypass, waiting lists down

Ambulance bypass continues to drop in Victorian public hospitals with waiting lists and emergency room waiting times also down despite a big increase in numbers of emergency patients, the latest quarterly Hospital Services Report shows.

Minister for Health John Thwaites said the report showed 189 instances of bypass in the three months to March, compared with 822 for the March quarter last year—down a massive 77 per cent.

‘There’s still more work to be done and we are heading into winter, the busiest time of year for hospitals.

‘This season, Victoria could be also facing its worst influenza outbreak in several years, which is likely to place further strain on hospitals.

‘However, the figures cited in the report show that Government strategies to turn the health system around are having an effect.

This was despite a big increase of 12 per cent in emergency admissions in the 12 major hospitals since the same quarter last year.

While there were still too many people waiting more than 12 hours in emergency departments, Mr Thwaites said the Hospital Services Report showed their number had decreased by 17 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, from 6,072 to 5,044.

The Report also showed 40,548 people on hospital elective surgery waiting lists on March 31, down from 42,897 on the same day a year earlier—a 5.5 per cent reduction.

Mr Thwaites said other key results from the Report included:

• Total hospital admissions for the quarter increased by 5.3 per cent on the previous year, from 242,978 to 255,872;

• 574 aged care patients were occupying hospital beds in March while waiting for a Commonwealth-funded aged care facility. They occupied 22,957 hospital bed-days;

• St Vincents Hospital significantly reduced the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours for a ward bed, from 424 in March 2001 to 73 (down 83 per cent) in March 2002. The Austin's numbers dropped from 773 to 297 (down 62 per cent).