26 September 2023

Pressured pandemic squeezes emergency care

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Ambulance Victoria and hospital emergency departments experienced their busiest April-June quarter on record with more Victorians seeking emergency care throughout the pandemic.

Minister for Health, Martin Foley said the Victorian Health Services Performance Report for the 2020/21 April-June quarter showed the effects of COVID-19 were still being felt across the State’s emergency departments and ambulance services.

Mr Foley said to meet demand, additional funding had been allocated for more nurses and hospital beds; an expansion of telehealth; more paramedics and ambulances; and upgrades to boost capacity and support flow through emergency departments.

“This package will deliver 300 more paramedics, triage nurses and support staff for Ambulance Victoria,” Mr Foley said.

“In the latest quarter, paramedics responded to an extra 17,535 call outs – with 84,441 calls for the quarter, compared with 68,906 for the same quarter last year – a 26.2 per cent increase,” he said.

“Our hospital emergency departments cared for 479,719 patients in the quarter, an increase of 34.2 per cent from the same period last year.”

Mr Foley said there were also improvements in the percentage of patients treated within the recommended time across all emergency care treatment categories and the sickest category one patients were all seen immediately.

The Minister said Victorian hospitals were also performing more elective surgeries at a faster rate, with 45,947 patients receiving their surgeries in the quarter, 3.7 per cent more than the previous quarter.

“The median time to treatment for all elective surgery patients was 31 days, eight days less than the previous quarter,” Mr Foley said.

The five-page Report can be downloaded at this PS News link.

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