By XAVIER SMERDON
WERRIBEE Mercy has beaten statewide targets for the most urgent patients, the latest figures reveal.
Minister for Health David Davis said last week that the Victorian Health Services Performance Report for the three months to the end of March showed that the hospital met the 30 day target for treating Category One urgent elective surgery patients.
Mr Davis said Mercy Hospital Werribee showed strong performance across a range of key areas including providing 17,504 bed days to patients in the three months to the end of March, up from 16,550 bed days for the same period in 2011.
“All of Victoria’s 10,861 Category One patients in the three months to the end of March received their surgery within the benchmark 30 days,” Mr Davis said.
“More importantly, our hospitals are giving our urgent patients the priority they deserve.
“Our hospitals continue to provide surgery to more urgent patients. The 10,861 Category One patients treated in the March quarter was more than 600 more than were given their surgery in the same period in 2011.”
But State Member for the Altona electorate, Jill Hennessy said the hospital had failed in several areas.
“In the first three months of this year, the percentage of emergency department patients transferred from emergency departments to hospital beds within eight hours at Werribee Mercy stood at 69 per cent, (but) the hospital target was per cent,” Ms Hennessy said.
“This data shows the waiting list for elective surgery is getting longer not shorter. Victoria’s health system is going backwards under (Premier Ted) Baillieu.”
