By Stephen Linnell
WERRIBEE Mercy Hospital failed to achieve three hospital performance targets set by the State Government for last July-December.
While hospital admissions and emergency department presentations increased significantly, only 63 per cent of patients described as urgent cases were seen by staff within 30 minutes.
This was 12 per cent below the 75 per cent target set by the government.
Urgent cases were described in the report as those patients who were suffering “moderately severe blood loss”, persistent vomiting or dehydration. This was an improvement, however, on the same period in the previous year, when the hospital recorded just a 47 per cent success rate.
The Mercy also fell short when it came to admitting patients to a bed within eight hours. It recorded a 73 per cent strike rate compared with the 80 per cent target set by the Government.
State Opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey said the report showed Werribee Mercy was not a priority of the State Government.
“The release of the Your Hospitals report today confirms the Mercy Werribee Hospital is in crisis and is not a priority of the Brumby Government, with the system buckling under the pressure of the government’s inaction,” she said.
“There are 473 patients on the waiting list, 2760 patients endured more than four hours waiting in the ED waiting room before being treated and discharged, and less elective surgeries have been performed.”
But Werribee Mercy’s chief operating officer, Stephen Cornelissen, said the measure referred to a patient’s entire time in the emergency department, including their treatment and discharge.
“Few, if any, patients wait more than four hours in the emergency department waiting room before being seen,” Mr Cornelissen said.
Ms Shardey said: “Each one of these reported figures represents a Victorian in pain, seeking treatment, yet they are only a small part of a continuing crisis. The state of Victorian hospitals has been rapidly declining and waiting lists are only increasing. The simple truth is Victorian hospitals are at maximum capacity and cannot cope with increased demand and an aging population.”
Mr Cornelissen said he was pleased with the overall findings of the report.
“The hospital achieved or surpassed five of the eight targets applicable to it, while falling just short on the remaining three,” he told Star.
“Where targets were not quite met, these mainly relate to the fact that the hospital is a community hospital and as such does not offer the full suite of services that the larger metropolitan hospitals offer.
“This means patients sometimes wait in the emergency department, following assessment, treatment and stabilisation, for transfer to an appropriate hospital. The time involved in finding an appropriate bed and transferring patients can skew the overall data. With the exception of access to mental health beds, there are few occasions where a patient requires an inpatient bed at WMH where they are not admitted within eight hours and this can be attributed to times of high demand.”
Mr Cornelissen said 100 per cent of patients in the most urgent “category one” were seen immediately, while 98 per cent of category two patients were seen within 10 minutes – well above the 80 per cent target. The average waiting time for 67 per cent of the 4500 “category three” patients was about 14 minutes, he said.
Total admissions at the hospital increased from 11,977 for July-December 2006 to 12,300 for July-December 2007, while emergency department presentations increased by almost 1000.
“The hospital has continued to provide more services to more people as inpatients and within the emergency department,” Mr Cornelissen said.
“Overall, the hospital has performed particularly well against all of the monitored benchmarks, considering the increase in the number of hospital presentations. The coming redevelopment of Werribee Mercy Hospital will ensure it continues to provide quality care to the growing Wyndham community.”
Emergency department triage categories are prioritised, with the most urgent being those patients who require emergency resuscitation or who have life-threatening injuries. Category two are those in severe pain with fractures and breathing difficulties, and should be seen by doctors and staff within 10 minutes of arrival. Urgent cases are those patients who have moderately severe blood loss, persistent vomiting or dehydration, and must be seen within 30 minutes of arrival.
The State Government failed to meet six of its own nine hospital performance targets. Health Minister Daniel Andrews said that despite the record number of patients treated by Victoria’s hospitals, unforeseen demand pressures meant some ambitious targets were not achieved.
“Hospitals treated more patients in the six months to December, despite the im-pact of a severe winter flu season, a spike in winter gastro and industrial action by nurses during the reporting period,” he said.
The Your Hospitals report stated that more than 45,000 emergency patients were left waiting on trolleys for more than eight hours.
Hospitals across the state kept more than 85,000 people waiting four hours or more in emergency departments.
It blamed a severe flu season, gastro outbreaks and a nurses’ strike for the poor results.
