Road trauma hospital network reforms save lives and money

ROAD trauma victims are significantly more likely to survive their crash with less disability since the overhaul of Victoria's hospital trauma system.

ROAD trauma victims are significantly more likely to survive in Victoria's improved hospital trauma system.

Monash University research also shows patients are escaping with less overall disability and at a lower cost to the state's economy.

The Prehospital, Emergency and Trauma Research Unit head, Professor Belinda Gabbe, said the establishment of the three main trauma hubs a decade ago had saved lives.

She said if a victim made it to hospital after a crash their odds of surviving in 2011 was 45 per cent higher than 2001.

"A big concern is that when you implement a system that saves lives people worry about shifting that burden to disability," Prof Gabbe said.

"So instead of people dying from injuries, you have more people quite profoundly disabled but that is simply not occurring."

Analysis of the Victorian State Trauma Registry found although the number of transport trauma victims in hospital increased over time, disability burden a case dropped.

There was an overall decline of 28 per cent in the number of years of healthy lives lost due to disability.

It also found less patients required treatment in intensive care units and there were fewer people suffering severe head injuries.

It is the first time the impact of trauma care systems on burden and cost of road traffic injury has been evaluated.

There were more than 7800 people in hospitals for such trauma in the past 10 years.

The health cost of each case dropped by up to $600,000 since 2001.

It also shows the annual cost to the economy was slashed from $1.85 billion in 2001-02 to $1.34 billion in 2010-11.

The Alfred hospital was the state's single trauma centre but the network now includes the Royal Melbourne and Royal Children's.

Prof Gabbe said the reforms co-ordinated the paramedics and health services and set up guidelines so the patient could be matched to the right hospital as quickly as possible.

Previously only half of patients picked up at the roadside would be taken to a trauma centre but this rose to 77 per cent.

Prof Gabbe said the benefit of having one-stop-shops for trauma was that there were adequate specialists and resources treat with patients with multiple injuries.

Assistant Treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips said the results were encouraging but the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) still received 17,000 new injury claims each year.

Only 20 per cent of these have spent time in a trauma ward, but the victims required lifelong care.

The research was published in the Annals of Surgery.