By LAURA WAKELY
EIGHT patients were forced to wait more than 24 hours for treatment at Sunshine Hospital’s emergency department between January and March this year.
But the number is a massive reduction on the hospital’s last performance report, when 26 patients waited more than 24 hours for treatment between October and December last year.
The most recent Victorian Health Services Performance report shows 13,692 patients were admitted to Sunshine Hospital between January and March this year, with 5887 emergency patients admitted.
The hospital spent 15 hours on bypass in that quarter, meeting the state-wide target of less than three per cent, and far outperforming Western Health’s Footscray hospital, which spent 53 hours on bypass.
Sunshine Hospital also had 52 hours on the early warning system for increased pressure in the emergency department in the March quarter, and the median time for transfer from ambulance to hospital was 18 minutes.
But the report also showed it took more than two hours for 90 per cent of patients to be seen by staff and that 96 mental health patients waited longer than eight hours for a bed.
Western Health CEO Kathryn Cook welcomed the release of the report and said the hospital continued to improve performance on elective surgery waiting times, exceeding state benchmarks in a number of areas.
“I am also pleased to note our improved performance in response times at Sunshine, Western and Williamstown Hospital Emergency Departments, despite the continuing high levels of demand,” Ms Cook said.
