Royal Children’s Hospital elective surgery waitlist blowout

Children on Victoria’s elective surgery wait list have languished longer than recommended, new data on the ailing health system has revealed.

Daniel Andrews denies Victoria’s elective surgery waiting list is declining at a glacial pace.

The Premier on Tuesday insisted there are “positive early signs” that the wait time for treatment was coming down.

Currently 82,613 Victorians remain stuck on the elective surgery list, but almost one quarter of all patients didn’t receive care within the recommended period.

More than 10 per cent of people are languishing in pain for more than a year – a more than 400 per cent increase on the same time last year.

It comes as new data revealed that wait times at the Royal Children’s Hospital have also blown out to more than 420 days.

The Victorian Agency for Health Information figures, which analyses the performance of the ailing health system, found that over 60 per cent of children are waiting more than the clinically recommended time for Category 2 procedures.

Asked on Tuesday if the waiting time for surgery was moving at a “glacial pace”, Mr Andrews hit back: “I wouldn’t say that.”

He spruiked the government’s “massive Covid catch up plan” as helping to drive down wait times.

“It’s why we’re seeing some positive early signs in terms of the amount of surgery that we’re doing and therefore clear signs that waiting list is coming down,” he said.

“Of course we’d like it to come down faster, but like every other state in our nation and every other jurisdiction in the world, there was a lot of surgery that was cancelled for the best of reasons.

“Now it’s our job to catch up, and we’re doing innovative things – weekend lists, night lists.

“We’ve bought two private hospitals for heaven’s sake and turned them into public elective surgery centres.

“There’s a long way to go though and we’re committed to doing that.”

Daniel Andrews has denied surgery waiting times are moving at a ‘glacial pace’. Picture: David Geraghty

The latest hospital performance figures have also revealed the huge difference in emergency wait times between hospitals, with a regional hospital home to the most delays per patient in the state.

More than half of emergency patients in some regions were not treated within the clinically recommended time while other hospitals treated more than 80 per cent of their patients in time.

More than 60 per cent of emergency patients at Ballarat Base Hospital were not treated within the clinically recommended time frame from October to December last year.

The only other hospital to treat less than 40 per cent of their patients in time was Werribee Mercy Hospital, in Melbourne’s outer west.

The statewide average for the quarter was 64.73 per cent, an increase compared to the previous quarter (60.19 per cent), but below the results for the same time period in the year prior (65.43 per cent).

The clinically recommended time frame varies depending on the patient’s condition, and ranges from immediately for patients in need of resuscitation to two hours for patients triaged as non-urgent, the lowest-priority category.

The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Two other hospitals, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and University Hospital Geelong, treated less than 50 per cent of patients within time.

At the other end of the spectrum was the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, with the highest results of 88 per cent.

This was followed by Angliss Hospital (87.73 per cent), the Mercy Hospital for Women – Heidelberg (85.32 per cent) and Hamilton Base Hospital (85.28 per cent).

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said it wasn’t good enough that people were waiting too long because of a “lagging health system”.

“Sadly, lengthy wait times for essential surgery are an all too familiar scene in the Victorian health system,” she said.

“The Andrews Labor government has been too slow to act, and now world-class facilities such as the Royal Children’s Hospital are feeling the brunt.”

“It is essential that Victorian children get the surgery they need, when they need it. The consequences are too great to risk.”