WAITING times at Werribee Mercy Hospital increased late last year as federal funding cuts began to impact its ability to treat patients.
As reported by the Weekly, Mercy Public Hospitals was forced to cut $3 million from its budget after Victoria’s share of federal health funding was reduced.
The money was eventually reinstated, but not before Werribee Mercy began shutting beds and delaying elective surgeries.
New state government data reveals the average wait for emergency department treatment between October and December 2012 was 24 minutes, up from 22 minutes in December 2011. The state average was 20 minutes.
The Victorian Health Services Report also revealed that ambulance patients faced waits of up to 23 minutes before being transferred to an emergency department bed, up from 15 minutes in 2011.
Ambulance patients at Werribee faced the longest wait in the west, with Sunshine and Footscray hospitals transferring patients within 21 and 22 minutes respectively.
Average waiting times for elective surgery increased from 48 days to 49 but waits for orthopaedic surgery blew out from 86 days in December 2011 to 126 days in December 2012. Mercy Public Hospitals executive director Linda Mellors said increasing emergency department attendances had impacted on the hospital’s ability to treat patients in a timely manner.
“In the December quarter we had more presentations to the [emergency department] than any other quarter in 2012. This included our highest number of ambulance attendances and the highest number of patients needing a hospital bed,” she said. “We are continually reviewing and improving our emergency department operations so our community can be assured of timely access to local emergency care.”
