SUNSHINE Hospital has received a glowing report from the State Government in its latest report into waiting times and access to emergency department treatment in Victoria’s public hospital system.
According to the latest Your Hospitals report, Sunshine Hospital has seen an increase in emergency department visits, but has helped reduce its elective surgery waiting list with more patients treated in the final six months of 2005.
The half-yearly report found that 30,703 people had visited or been treated in the emergency department in the final six months of last year – up by almost 2000, or a seven per cent increase.
The hospital admitted 18,666 patients overall, also with an increase of more than seven per cent, and 76 more patients were admitted off the elective surgery waiting list with 2056 patients undergoing an operation during the reporting period.
But the opposition has hit out at the report, accusing the government of providing “fudged” figures that don’t show the overall picture of public hospitals.
“The report is nothing but a bunch of fudged figures intended to mislead the Victorian public and cover up the Bracks Government’s failure to improve the situation in Victorian hospitals,” Opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey said last week.
“Labor’s Health Minister Bronwyn Pike is trying to fool Victorians by comparing July to December figures with January to June figures, which creates a false result because hospitals operate and schedule surgery differently over those two periods.”
“To further confuse people, Bronwyn Pike has changed the reporting measure of emergency department waiting periods, making it impossible to compare with previous years or even the last six months,” Ms Shardey said.
But Ms Pike said the figures proved that the public hospital system has improved in the past year.
“The elective surgery results speak for themselves. Most of the people whose names were on the list on December 31 will by now have been in hospital and had their surgery,” Ms Pike said.
“Hospitals are treating more people and bringing lists and time treatment down. This is despite huge challenges, such as a massive seven per cent increase in emergency department presentations compared to the same period the previous year.”
According to the report, Sunshine Hospital treated 100 per cent of category 1 emergency patients upon arrival and 99 per cent of category 2 urgent emergency patients within 10 minutes.
All the Category 1 urgent waiting list patients were admitted within 30 days and only five per cent of Category 2 semi-urgent waiting list patients were not treated within 90 days.
A spokesperson for the hospital was unable for comment before Star went to press.
