Latest hospital figures add to need to rebuild Box Hill Hospital

The latest figures for the performance of Victoria’s hospitals, released yesterday, show the waiting list for elective surgery at Box Hill Hospital has reached an all-time high of 2,613 patients as at December last year.

On almost every measure, more patients have waited longer for treatment at Box Hill, if they have been able to get treatment at all.

The hospital was on ambulance by-pass for 7.9% of the entire six month period, compared with 3.6% in the half year to December 2006. This was more than double the statewide average of 3.7%.

Almost half (48%) of patients who needed a bed waited in the emergency department for more than 8 hours before being admitted. This compares with the statewide average of 35%.

Of those patients who didn’t need to be admitted, again almost half (49%) waited for more than four hours before being treated, compared with a statewide average of 26%.

More than half (53%) of semi-urgent surgery patients waited longer than the benchmark 90 days, compared with the state average of 25%.

Almost one third (30%) of non-urgent surgery patients waited for more than a year for surgery, compared with a state average of 9%.

Of the 27 major public hospitals on which the government reported individual performance, Box Hill had the worst or equal worst performance of any hospital for
– ambulance bypass
– emergency patients waiting more than 8 hours for admission
– non-admitted emergency patients waiting more than 4 hours for treatment.

These figures show how badly eastern suburbs residents are suffering from Labor’s broken promise to redevelop the hospital, as doctors and nursing staff struggle to treat growing numbers of patients in old and run-down facilities.

The hospital redevelopment needs to proceed urgently. Every delay will mean longer waiting lists and waiting times.