Ambulance Victoria fails to reach all urgent patients in target of less than 15 minutes

Some Victorians needing surgery are being forced to wait more than two years for an operation, while hospitals reveal the pressures hitting them hard.

Ambulance Victoria failed to meet its target response times for urgent cases again in the last quarter, while more than 30 per cent of Victorian emergency department patients waited too long for treatment.

The latest Victorian Agency for Health Information report, released on Wednesday, showed while the state had made improvements across planned surgery (previously called elective), ambulance and EDs, they were still under pressure and failing to meet targets.

Ambulance Victoria is supposed to reach 85 per cent of urgent “lights and sirens” cases within 15 minutes, but only two-thirds of patients received a response in this time between July and September this year.

This was an increase compared to last quarter – when paramedics reached 61.7 per cent of urgent cases in time – and similar to their performance this time last year, when they reached 64.3 per cent.

Ambulance Victoria failed to meet its target response times for urgent cases again last quarter. Picture: David Geraghty

More than one third of ambulance patients were forced to wait more than 40 minutes to be transferred to the ED.

“It is a pressure for us, but it’s good to see some improvement. We’re cautious in relation to that optimism but we will be aiming to do better moving forward,” Ambulance Victoria executive director Anthony Carlyon said.

Emergency departments remained under pressure, with just under 70 per cent of emergency patients treated within the clinically recommended time for their condition.

While this had increased slightly compared to last quarter, it still fell short of the system‘s 80 per cent target.

More than 2300 Victorians spent more than a day in an ED between July and September.

Almost 69,000 Victorians are still on the surgery waitlist.

The average overdue category-three patient waited more than 690 days for their non-urgent planned surgery, including six hospitals (Dandenong, Royal Melbourne, Casey, Box Hill, Monash Medical Centre Clayton and Frankston Public Surgical Centre) where the average was more than two years.

Victorian Healthcare Association — the peak body for the state’s public hospitals — chief executive Leigh Clarke said while the data had improved, long-term issues continue to place services under pressure.

“Our hospitals have been working extremely hard to speed up elective surgeries, cut emergency wait times and reduce the number of patients staying longer than they need to, all while working in an increasingly challenging operating environment,” she said.

Almost 69,000 Victorians are still on the planned surgery waitlist. Picture: iStock

“It is really pleasing to see government initiatives like the Covid Catch Up Plan and Planned Surgery Recovery and Reform program continuing to have an impact on waiting lists for planned surgeries.

“But we also know many services are struggling in an increasingly complex operating environment with rising service delivery costs, ongoing workforce shortages and the need for investment in critical maintenance that meets community expectations.”

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said she was confident the state could meet its “ambitious” target of delivering 240,000 surgeries by the middle of next year.

She said the data reflected a “steady improvement” across the system, but acknowledged there was a way to go.

“I’m not calling time on the end of reform,” she said. “We will continue to keep our foot on the pedal when it comes to delivering improvements in our healthcare system.”

Ms Thomas said the greatest pressure on the healthcare system was a lack of access to a bulk billing doctor.

“This is a consequence of almost a decade of neglect under the previous federal Liberal National government,” she said.

“You can’t grow a GP workforce overnight.”

But Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the data painted a poor picture.

“It’s not good enough,” he said.

“This government has failed Victorians yet again when it comes to health care.”