The latest hospital and ambulance performance data has revealed Victoria’s health services continue to provide high quality healthcare for those who need it, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, Premier Daniel Andrews said that as Victorians heeded the message to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19, there had been substantial reductions in hospitalisations, emergency department visits and ambulance callouts in the three months to June.
“Our health services across the State have also continued to provide timely care even while dealing with unprecedented widescale measures to keep Victorians safe like physical distancing, new PPE and infection control procedures and juggling workforce demands,” Mr Andrews said.
“Emergency department (ED) visits fell by 25 per cent between April and June compared to the same time last year with 357,449 people presenting for treatment,” he said.
“Treatment times improved with the average wait time just 12 minutes and 80.15 per cent of all ED patients seen within the benchmark times, up more than 10 per cent on the previous quarter.”
Mr Andrews said with fewer emergency department presentations and a reduction in elective surgery, there was a corresponding decrease in hospitalisations, with 408,837 Victorians staying overnight in hospital, down by 84,435 on a year earlier.
“Coronavirus has also kept our paramedics busy over the past three months,” he said.
“Despite time consuming additional decontamination and PPE requirements, crews responded to more than 17,300 potential coronavirus cases – an average of 191 per day.”
Mr Andrews said coordination between Ambulance Victoria and hospitals had also improved, with data showing 86.54 per cent of patients were transferred from the ambulance to the hospital ED within the benchmark 40 minutes, up by 5.48 per cent on the same time last year.
“This latest data show that our doctors, nurses, paramedics and everyone else who help keep hospitals running, have done an outstanding job caring for those who need it – despite all the challenges this pandemic has thrown at them,” the Premier said.
