AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2000
Vic: Bracks "not happy" with hospital figures
By Trevor Chappell, State Political Correspondent
MOE, Victoria, Dec 11 AAP - Victorian Premier Steve Bracks today admitted he was not
happy with a blowout in hospital waiting lists and diversions of ambulances away from
full emergency wards.
The Hospital Services Report for the September 2000 quarter, released last Friday,
showed ambulances were forced to bypass public hospital emergency wards 1,108 times from
July to September because wards were full.
The report also showed a four per cent increase in the number of people on hospital
waiting lists for elective surgery from 42,121 in the June 2000 quarter to 43,806 in the
September quarter.
"I'm not happy with those (the figures) at all," Mr Bracks told reporters.
"It underscores the task that we had to ensure that we eat into waiting lists, that
we eat into emergency department procedures in the future to ensure that we have a quicker
turn around.
"It underscores the need to get more nurses recruited and more hospital beds open."
Mr Bracks said the commonwealth's failure to provide sufficient nursing home beds was
pushing people who should be in residential care into public hospitals, creating a "pressure
cooker" situation.
Health Minister John Thwaites said the government was "obviously concerned to improve
those figures (the hospital performance statistics) as much as we can".
Mr Thwaites said he hoped a campaign to recruit an extra 1,300 nurses in public hospitals
would make a difference.
The report said factors contributing to the September quarter figures included industrial
action by nurses in August; a shortage of nursing staff; increasing delays in placing
patients in residential care; an increase in patients requiring emergency admission; and
more old people going to hospital with more complex needs.
AAP tsc/kc/clr/gmw
KEYWORD: HOSPITALS VIC CARRIED EARLIER
2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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