Thousands of Victorians going to hospital with conditions which could be treated by GPs

MORE than 1700 ill Victorians are clogging up hospitals every day by taking themselves to emergency for health problems that could instead be seen to by GPs.

HOSPITALS are dealing with an average of more than 1700 Victorians a day seeking ­medical care their family ­doctors could offer.

Alarming new data shows that, of people turning up at emergency departments last year, 632,612 were not admitted because their conditions could be “appropriately managed” outside hospital.

About half were people with chronic conditions.

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Hospital emergency departments are swamped with non-emergency patients. File image

Despite state government efforts to encourage people to consult a general practitioner first, “potentially avoidable” hospital arrivals have surged by 17,000 in just two years.

Several recent studies have linked hospital overcrowding to increasing numbers of parents, lacking confidence in GPs, taking sick children to emergency departments.

The cost of a visit to a GP, and actual or perceived difficulties in getting appointments, may also be factors.

A Productivity Commission report, out today, has found cost-of-living pressures are also forcing poorer Victorians to delay seeking medical care.

Of more than 28,000 Victorians surveyed, 7.6 per cent delayed buying prescribed medicine last year because of cost.

A further 4.5 per cent — up from 3.8 per cent the year before — waited to visit a ­doctor because they couldn’t afford the appointment.

The Royal Children's Hospital has been inundated with extra ED presentations amid a drop in GP visits. Picture: Darren McNamara

The commission classified avoidable hospital presentations as patients with issues judged to be semi-urgent or non-urgent, who did not arrive by ambulance and were not admitted or referred to another hospital.

“Potentially avoidable presentations to emergency departments are presentations for conditions that could be appropriately managed in the primary and community health sector,” the commission said.

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“A low or decreasing proportion of potentially avoidable presentations to emergency departments can indicate better access to primary and community health care.”

Premier Daniel Andrews warned three years ago that the number of avoidable presentations would “only worsen with a $5 GP tax” — an Abbott Government policy which was never implemented.

Immunisation rates for toddlers and five-year-old children are at their highest in a decade. Picture: iStock

The data showed about half of potentially preventable hospitalisations involved people with chronic conditions.

The report also found that for Victorians:

FEDERAL spending on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme hit $2.3 billion, up from $2 billion the year before;

DOCTORS number 104 per 100,000 people, just below the national average;

THREE out of every five Victorians got an urgent appointment to see a doctor within four hours, the lowest level in five years;

IMMUNISATION rates for children 12-15 months old and five years old are at their highest in a decade. Measles and whooping cough cases fell significantly in the last five years, and

THE number of cases of measles and whooping cough among children has fallen significantly in the past five years.

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Last year, paramedics ­attended 847,924 incidents, 350,110 of them “non-urgent”. Code 1 response times were at their quickest in five years.

A survey of patients who were transported in ambulances found 97 per cent were satisfied with the service, and 62 per cent thought the ambulance arrived faster than they expected.

A state government recruitment surge means Victoria now has 4155 operational ambulance personnel, surpassing than any other state, with a total labour bill of $635 million.

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