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One in five patients forgotten - Victorians need real doctors not spin doctors
The Bracks Government has turned its back on more than one in five Victorians on waiting lists by asking the spin doctors to fix the problem rather than the real doctors
AMA Victoria Vice President Dr Doug Travis, a surgeon working in the public hospital system, said doctors were tired of having to tell people with often painful and debilitating conditions, their surgery had been postponed or would be many months away because of a shortage of hospital beds and doctors.
Closer analysis of the Your Hospitals report released recently by the Bracks Government show the elective surgery waiting list is not improving and the government is not meeting national benchmarks or even its own lower targets.
“The government aims to treat only 80 per cent of semi-urgent patients within 90 days, compared to the national benchmark of treating 100 per cent within 90 days.
“The government has effectively said we acknowledge these patients should be treated within 90 days, but we can’t meet the national target and should not even try to deliver that level of healthcare to Victorians. Rather than do something constructive like investing in more doctors, nurses and beds, they have chosen the easy option, lowering the benchmark to make the figures look good.
“The Your Hospitals report has become an exercise in government spin doctoring, creating lower targets so they can look good. Why don’t we line up five people requiring semi-urgent knee surgery or a prostate operation and the Bracks Government can come and pick which one is not going to receive the operation they need in a timely manner.
“Doctors list patients as semi-urgent because they need to have their surgery within 90 days, but the government does not seem to care that more than one in five people can’t access the surgery they need in the timeframe they need.”
Dr Travis said while the government was using a lower benchmark to make the figures look good, it didn’t even meet the lower target, with only 73 per cent of patients treated within 90 days.
“The report highlights doctors and nurses are working extremely hard and at peak efficiency. The only way the government can improve the elective surgery waiting times is by attracting more doctors and nurses to public hospitals and increasing the number of beds in public hospitals.
“The government is turning its back on Victorians in need of operations to relieve pain and suffering. They are using statistics and spin to make the figures look good when in fact the picture is very bad.
“The government should be listening to those at the coalface about the state of the public hospital system, doctors. What we need now is more doctors, more nurses and more beds so we can get on with our job of treating and caring for Victorians in need,” Dr Travis said.
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