Werribee’s Mercy Hospital has become “gridlocked”, with bed shortages forcing patients to wait unacceptable periods last financial year, according to the state opposition.
Labor health and mental health spokesman Wade Noonan said the hospital was the worst in the state for failing to transfer mental health patients within benchmark times.
He said figures in the Mercy’s 2012-13 annual report and the Health Department’s latest hospital performance data, both released last week, show ‘‘Werribee Mercy has become gridlocked under Denis Napthine’s government’’.
Mr Noonan said the annual report revealed 264 patients waited in the emergency department for longer than 24 hours, despite the hospital’s target of having no patients wait for more than a day.
‘‘More than 20 patients each month are forced to wait in the hospital’s emergency department for more than 24 hours because there are no beds,’’ Mr Noonan said.
“Ambulances are being ramped up outside the emergency department because it’s completely clogged.
“Tragically, more than half of all mentally ill patients who present at the hospital’s emergency department are forced to wait longer than eight hours for a bed. This is the worst result in the state by a long way.”
Mr Noonan said hospital performance data showed that while the hospital aimed to transfer 80 per cent of mental health patients from the emergency department to a mental health bed within eight hours, it only transferred 44 per cent in the last quarter to June.
However, this had improved from 31 per cent in the April to June quarter of 2012.
Mercy Health executive director Linda Mellors said the hospital’s performance had improved in the last quarter with 5431 patients treated within recommended times, compared to 5039 from the June quarter in 2012.
She said the ambulance transfer rate of 84.8 per cent of patients within 40 minutes was better than the state average of 76 per cent.
Dr Mellors did not comment on the annual figure of 264 patients staying longer than 24 hours in the emergency department.
She said that in the June 2013 quarter, 32 patients stayed longer than a day, compared with 73 in the June 2012 quarter.
