Bedside manner: Health Minister David Davis chats with Geelong Hospital patient Iain Macleod.
Erin Pearson
AN AUDIT of Geelong Hospital’s surgery waiting lists will fix “inaccuracies” while putting patients in theatre faster, according to Victoria’s new Health Minister.
David Davis, a frequent critic of the standard of the region’s public health care while in opposition, said cutting unnecessarily “lengthy” waiting times for surgery was his first priority for Geelong.
Mr Davis said the Brumby Government let waiting lists grow to “unacceptable” levels.
“Further details regarding the health service audit will be announced soon to help us understand the true waiting lists. There have been clear examples of waiting list manipulation.
“Outpatient auditing will also be commenced, as it was previously excluded, so we can release details of waiting times and waiting lists all around.”
Mr Davis visited Geelong this week to meet officials at Barwon Health and Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus where the Coalition State Government plans to build a new public hospital.
Barwon Health’s annual report showed 2070 patients were waiting on elective surgery lists, while 70 had waited in the emergency department longer than 24 hours.
Mr Davis used his visit to announce additional funding for the Waurn Ponds hospital.
He said $9 million from a former Brumby Government plan to buy land for a new hospital at Armstrong Creek would now go toward the Waurn Ponds project if negotiations with Deakin were “successful”.
The public hospital would join a proposed private Epworth facility and Deakin’s medical school at Waurn Ponds to form a new health “cluster” in Geelong.
“We are keen to see a community hospital located as part of that cluster,” Mr Davis said.
“We’ve met the medical school and university officials in preliminary meetings to talk about a community hospital and the role it might play.
“We are very keen to see that progress.”
