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More Royal Melbourne Hospital patients missing out on care
03 October 2008
Royal Melbourne Hospital is struggling to cope with an influx of patients and more locals are missing out on timely care than ever before, AMA Victoria President Dr Doug Travis said following the release of the Victorian Government’s Your Hospitals report this week.
Across the state more than 363,000 Victorians failed to receive access to medical care within clinically appropriate timeframes — an increase of 43,000 people, or more than 11 per cent in the past year.
“We have a growing population coupled with a chronic a shortage of nurses, doctors and beds to care for patients,” Dr Travis said. “For Royal Melbourne Hospital patients and staff these shortages are causing daily crises.
Dr Travis said Royal Melbourne Hospital admissions had increased and as a result, patients were forced to wait longer for care.
One fifth of Royal Melbourne Hospital patients with symptoms such as very severe pain, stroke, appendicitis, severe breathing difficulties, waited longer than the recommended ten minutes for treatment.
Almost half of Royal Melbourne Hospital category three patients suffering moderately severe blood loss, broken wrists, persistent vomiting, and dehydration waited longer than the recommended thirty minutes for treatment.
“This is unacceptable. Lengthy waits can seriously increase risk of complications and even death. All public hospital patients should be seen within the clinically appropriate times.”
Dr Travis said managing Royal Melbourne Hospital’s emergency department was a major problem because it was just too full. “When patients are stuck in emergency departments because they can’t be moved to a bed; people wait longer and the clinical risk increases.”
The Victorian Government met only four of its nine public hospital targets, failing to manage the increases in emergency demand and failing to manage elective surgery.
“I hope this report is a wake up call to the government that the system is at breaking point,” Dr Travis said.
Dr Travis explained that the government operated a system where clinical care standards for waiting times were set by doctors. For example, all people entering an emergency department with no heartbeat are seen immediately, while people with less severe injuries may need to wait.
Dr Travis said the figures could have been worse without some manipulation. The government has actually added a new performance measure since last year (elective surgery category three), which it always meets. The government also managed to scrape in to meet its ambulance bypass performance indicator by leaving patients ‘ramped’ outside hospital emergency departments rather than go on bypass.
“Victorian hospitals are still fairly efficient, but our productivity gains are slowing. Innovation and good patient care is being strangled by the inefficiencies caused by a lack of capacity,” Dr Travis said.
Dr Travis said that the Minister has had a report with many of the answers on his desk for ten months. The Ministerial Review of Victorian Public Health Medical Staff was handed to the Minister in November, and contains 71 recommendations for improving the hospital system. “So far the Minister has partially responded to just seven recommendations. It’s time for the Minister to act on the report.”
“Victorians know that their hospital system is struggling. The Your Hospitals report shows that this struggle is affecting more and more Victorians every day. It’s time to take action to improve our hospitals.”
Background:
The State Government’s Your Hospitals report measures the performance of Victorian public hospitals. It is available at: www.health.vic.gov.au/yourhospitals
For Royal Melbourne Hospital, the report shows:
- Total hospital admissions have increased three per cent from 2006-07 to 2007-08 (100,476 to 103,868).
- The number of category two patients seen within 10 mins dropped from 90 to 80 per cent.
- The number of category three patients seen within 30 mins dropped from 68 to 51 per cent.
- Just 62 per cent of patients waiting for a bed were admitted within the recommended eight hours.
- In this period, patients admitted for semi-urgent surgery within 90 days fell from 56 to 51 per cent and patient admitted for non-urgent surgery within one year fell to 69 per cent.
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