Tuesday, 31 July 2018

Ambulances are responding faster to life-threatening emergencies in the City of Latrobe, while elective surgery waiting lists are at record lows.

The latest performance data released today shows the Andrews Labor Government’s major health funding boosts and reforms to Victoria’s ambulance system are delivering big benefits to Gippsland patients when they need it most.

For Latrobe Regional Hospital, the data shows the hospital:

• Reduced median time to treatment for elective surgeries from 37 days in the June 2017 quarter to 22 days during the June 2018 quarter – 15 days less.
• Provided elective surgery to 100 per cent of Category 1 urgent patients within the benchmark 30 days – and more than half within 12 days.
• Provided elective surgery to 98 per cent of Category 2 semi-urgent patients within the benchmark 90 days in the June quarter – up by one per cent from three months earlier.
• Reduced median time to treatment for emergency department patients by 3 minutes, from 24 minutes during the June 2017 quarter to 21 minutes during the June 2018 quarter.

Across the state, 83.8 per cent of all Code 1 urgent ambulances are arriving at emergencies within 15 minutes, at an average 11:12 minutes of being called out – that’s 38 seconds faster than the same quarter one year prior and 2:41 minutes under the Liberals.

In the City of Latrobe, we are seeing more improvement, with 80.8 per cent of ambulances now arriving within 15 minutes for Code One emergencies, up from 77.8 per cent a year earlier.

The average time for an ambulance to reach the scene of a Code One emergency in Latrobe over the same period has improved from 11.59 minutes to 11:24 minutes.

The statewide data also shows 86.7 per cent of patients arriving by ambulance were transferred into hospital care within 40 minutes – up from 85.1 per cent the previous quarter. More than half were handed into the care of doctors and nurses within 19 minutes.

Victoria’s elective surgery waiting lists at June 30 had dropped to 36,096 patients – that’s the lowest number on record, and a major improvement from the 50,054 waiting for surgery when the Liberals were in power.

Under the Liberals, only 79.2 per cent of patients received their surgery in the recommended time, but that number has increased to 90.2 per cent.

The results are thanks to the Labor Government’s record investments, which have seen hospitals receive multi-million-dollar boosts, more paramedics join the front line, more ambulances hit the road and more ambulance stations where they’re needed.

They stand in stark contrast to the former Liberal Government – who went to war with our paramedics and slashed $1 billion from our health system, leaving patients waiting too long for life-saving care and languishing on waiting lists.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Jill Hennessy

“Elective surgery waiting lists broke the 50,000 barrier under the Liberals and our ambulance system was in crisis. Now our hospitals and our ambulance service are performing better than ever before.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing

“We’ve worked really hard to deliver year on year improvements in ambulance response times and these latest results show that our investments in more paramedics, new stations, support and training are paying off.”

“Ambulances are arriving faster and Gippsland’s hospitals are better equipped than ever to give patients the high-quality care that they deserve.”