Thursday 11 June 2009

LABOR’S EMERGENCY FAILURE: MORE AMBULANCES WAIT LONGER AT HOSPITALS

Ambulances and their skilled officers are being tied up waiting to discharge patients at hospital emergency departments for record amounts of time according to official documents, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.

Freedom Of Information documents obtained by Channel 9 show:

	2006/2007	2007/2008	6 mths to Dec 2008
Minutes spent waiting over and above 30 mins	1,034,349 mins (17,239 hours or 718 days)	1,428,611 mins (23,810 hours or 992 days)	942,385 mins (15,706 hours or 654 days)
P1 patients arriving at ER	271,312	291,409	156,676
P1 patients admitted straight to ER	12,643	6,883	2,161
P1 patients waiting in ambulance for 30 mins or more	54,487	67,444	40,801

“Labor’s incompetence means sick patients are waiting longer and longer in ambulances before they get admitted to emergency,” Mrs Skinner said.

“Not only are patients suffering because of Labor’s failure, highly skilled ambulance officers are being forced to sit around waiting instead of attending to more jobs,” she said.

“This is typical of Labor’s waste and mismanagement within the health portfolio.

“These figures show people's lives are being put at risk, and they should act as a wake up call for Nathan Rees and John Della Bosca who have been telling anyone who will listen that the hospital system is in a healthy state.

“Emergency departments are blocked because extremely sick patients who need to be admitted for treatment can't be found a ward bed.

“The hospital system desperately needs more experienced nurses to enable more beds to be opened, eliminating this access block,” Mrs Skinner said.