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Record numbers of Victorians missing out on care
02 October 2008
The latest Your Hospitals report reveals more Victorians are missing out on clinically appropriate care than ever before, AMA Victoria President Dr Doug Travis said today.
More than 363,000 Victorians did not receive access to medical care within clinically appropriate timeframes — an increase of 43,000 people, or more than 11 per cent.
“Today’s Your Hospitals tells usthe number of Victorians missing out on clinically appropriate care is growing substantially,” Dr Travis said. “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.”
“Our hositals are in crisis; we have a growing population coupled with a chronic a shortage of nurses, doctors and beds to care for patients. We hear about the problems these shortages are causing every day.”
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.
Your Hospitals shows 20,000 patients with symptoms such as very severe pain, stroke, appendicitis, severe breathing difficulties, or major fractures were not seen within the clinically appropriate ten minutes. 85,000 Victorians waited longer than eight hours in emergency for a bed.
“I hope this 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.
“Managing our emergency departments is a major problem because the hospitals are just too full,” he said. “When patients are stuck in emergency departments because they can’t be moved to a bed; people wait longer and the clinical risk increases.”
“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
AMA Victoria has analysed the latest Your Hospitals report released today, and notes that in the July 2007 to June 2008 reporting period:
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363,000 Victorians missed on out on care in a clinically appropriate time period — an increase of 43,000 people from the previous financial year.
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22 per cent of category two emergency patients were not seen within ten minutes — this represents 20,000 patients with symptoms such as very severe pain, stroke, appendicitis, severe breathing difficulties, or major fractures. This is 25 per cent higher than last year (an extra 4000 people).
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32 per cent of category three emergency patients were not seen within 30 minutes — 98,000 Victorians suffering symptoms such as moderately severe blood loss, broken wrists, persistent vomiting, and dehydration. An increase of 16 per cent on last year (an extra 14,000 people).
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33 per cent of emergency department patients did not get a hospital bed within eight hours — more than 85,000 Victorians. An increase of 19 per cent on last year (an extra 14,000 people).
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25 per cent of non-admitted patients were not discharged within four hours — representing more than 160,000 Victorians. An increase of 9 per cent on last year (an extra 15,000 people).
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Almost one in three Victorians needing semi-urgent elective surgery were not operated on within 90 days — in addition to the unspecified time these patients were waiting to be seen in outpatients, prior to being put on the waiting list for surgery.
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