Failures expose health crisis

Geelong Hospital is in crisis after again failing to reach half its treatment benchmarks, according to the state’s shadow health minister.
But State Government says Barwon Health has “performed strongly”, with the latest Your Hospitals report showing that more patients underwent elective surgery while less were waiting on a non-urgent waiting list at Geelong Hospital.
Opposition shadow health minister Helen Shardey said the report on hospital performance in the last six months to December was of concern.
“It is obvious Geelong is not a priority for the Brumby Govern-ment,” she said.
Ms Shardey said surgery cancellations had risen, waiting times for semi-urgent procedures had grown and more patients were enduring longer waits in the hospital’s emergency department.
Ms Shardey said the report had “embarrassed” the Government, so it delayed releasing Your Hospitals until almost the next reporting period.
“There has been a systematic failure by the Brumby Govern-ment in planning for the future of Victoria’s health system and this report reveals our hospitals are under pressure from all areas.”
Health Minister Daniel An-drews, who released the report last Friday, said it revealed the state’s hospitals carried out a record 76,618 elective surgeries in the last six months of 2008.
Barwon Health played an “important role in the improved performance”, he said.
“Victoria’s performance im-proved on their performance in eight out of the nine indicators compared to the same time last year despite admitting more than 15,700 extra patients than they had a year earlier.”
Mr Andrews said the report found that elective surgery was up 12 per cent on the same time the previous year at Geelong Hospital, while patients on the category three non-urgent waiting lists were down 123.
Geelong had the most admissions of country Victorian hospitals but was second to Ballarat Health Services for emergency department presentations, he said.