By Esther Lauaki
Wyndham patients have been waiting less time than ever before for elective surgery and urgent specialist appointments new data shows.
Hospital and ambulance performance data for the September quarter showed that Werribee Mercy Hospital provided operations for all of its Category 1 elective surgery patients within the benchmark 30 days.
More than half of those were within 16 days – one day quicker than the year before.
Werribee MP Tim Pallas thanked doctors, nurses and paramedics for rising to meet record demand due to surges in the number of people attending hospitals driven by an unprecedented flu season.
“Victoria’s hospitals and ambulance service have done a tremendous job keeping up their high levels of patient care – during our worst flu season on record,” Mr Pallas said.
Victoria’s flu season started early and hit hard with more than 66,000 laboratory-confirmed cases, meaning hospitals have had to treat far more patients than anticipated this winter.
Wyndham ambulance response times continue to better the state average, with Code 1 ambulances arriving in an average 11 minutes 7 seconds – better than the state-wide result of 11 minutes 19 seconds.
Wyndham ambulances responded to 2456 Code 1 calls in the three months, up on the 2070 call-outs a year earlier.
About 85 per cent of local ambulances arrived within 15 minutes, compared to the state result of 83.3 per cent.
Across Victoria, performance data showed hospitals saw 474,175 patients in emergency departments during the September quarter.
All category 1 patients were treated immediately upon arrival.
Despite the additional pressure on hospitals, elective surgery patients also received their operations quicker than ever before – with more than half of all elective patients receiving their operations within 26 days.
