By ALESHA CAPONE
MORE than 1600 patients were on Sunshine Hospital’s elective surgery waiting list between January and March this year, according to new data.
Last week the State Government released statistics for hospitals across the state, which showed there were 1676 people needing elective operations at the Sunshine Hospital, across the three months.
The figures also showed 11 people spent more than 24 hours waiting in the hospital’s emergency department.
The hospital did not meet the state target of treating 80 per cent of category two patients – those in very severe pain, suffering breathing difficulties or major fractures – who presented to the emergency department within 10 minutes.
Instead, 75 per cent of the hospital’s category two patients were treated within the timeframe.
In addition, the emergency department did not treat 75 per cent of category three patients – those suffering moderately severe blood loss, persistent vomiting or dehydration – within 30 minutes, as required by state targets.
The hospital treated 69 per cent of these patients within half an hour.
However the hospital transferred 91.6 per cent of patients waiting in ambulances within 40 minutes, beating the state target of 90 per cent.
Sunshine Hospital also easily met the state target of operating on category two elective surgery patients within 90 days, seeing 85 per cent of these patients in the required timeframe.
In addition, the hospital treated 97 per cent of category three elective surgery patients within the required 365 days.
Western Health chief executive, Associate Professor Alex Cockram, said she was pleased by the hospital’s result.
“Despite the challenges presented by increasing demands for services at Western Health Emergency Departments, a number of improvements were reported in the March 2013 quarter, including the number of patients seen within four hours,” she said.
