Patients Being Kept Off Official Waiting Lists

Written on Monday, July 28th, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

“More than 33 000 Victorians are waiting for outpatient’s appointments and the numbers keep rising,” says Helen Shardey, Shadow Minister for Health. As of December 2007 there were an additional 8722 patients waiting for an appointment than there were in the three months previously at the end of September 2007. This represents a 35 percent increase.

These 33 869 people waiting for an outpatient appointment in Victoria are on top of the 39 502 published elective surgery waiting list for Victoria’s public hospitals.

“Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Opposition reveal that the Brumby Government is failing in its duty of care when it comes to getting sick Victorian’s treated in a timely manner,” says Mrs Shardey.

“There are literally tens of thousands of patients languishing on the Government’s secret outpatient waiting lists and thousands more who don’t have appointments who are waiting to get onto these lists to see a doctor.

“People must be seen and assessed in hospital outpatient clinics before they can be put on a waiting list for surgery,” explains Mrs Shardey

“We are now in the unconscionable position of having people waiting to get onto these lists in order to join the queue for elective surgery,” says Mrs Shardey. “

“Hospitals are being forced to manipulate their waiting lists in order to avoid being penalised by the Government. The result is that thousands of people who are waiting to see a specialist do not show up on the “official” elective surgery waiting list, which is tabled in the Your Hospitals report. In many cases these people are waiting years,” says Mrs Shardey.

These figures reveal just how bad our waiting lists have become with thousands of country Victorian’s being pushed onto outpatient appointment lists,” says Mrs Shardey.

Forty -four percent of people waiting for outpatient appointments are from regional Victoria. The outpatient waiting lists for Victoria’s main regional hospitals (Ballarat, Barwon, Bendigo, and Goulburn Valley Health) show a staggering 14 855 people waiting for appointments.

Some patients are being forced to wait years for treatment. A Category 1 (urgent) patient at Barwon Health waited an incredible 1605 days* or just over four years for an outpatient’s review appointment to see a specialist about his/her Lymphedema.

Lymphedema is a disease of the lymphatic system which causes excruciating pain, and massive swelling which reduces the patient’s ability to move.

Two people at Ballarat Base Hospital waited 194** days each for their oncology appointments.

Another patient at Goulburn Valley Health had to wait over 500 days for an orthopaedic outpatient appointment. While two anxious parents faced an 89 day and 84* day wait respectively for Category 1 paediatric clinic appointment.

*As of September 2007

“A combined total of regional and metropolitan hospitals bring this secret waiting list to 33 869. This figure is enormous considering that Western Health and few other hospitals failed to provide information, “says Mrs Shardey.

“As of December 2007 there are 33 869 “hidden” patients and it is high time the Brumby Government saw to it that these patients are treated in a timely manner.

In metropolitan Melbourne it’s a case of waiting on the never-never list when it comes to some of the major hospital’s outpatient waiting lists. At Royal Melbourne Hospital three neurosurgery patients were forced to wait 783 days, 719 days and 671 days respectively for their appointments.

Patients attending Box Hill hospital are also not immune to lengthy waits. The hospital recorded a patient waiting 714 days for an orthopaedics appointment, while five others had to wait between 547 and 672 days for their orthopaedic appointments.**

A cardiology patient was forced to wait 355 days** for an outpatient appointment at St Vincent’s while another patient at St Vincent’s had to wait 301** days to see a doctor about his/her diabetes condition.

“How long should sick Victorians be forced to be patient with our crumbling health system, while waiting for care? Our sick deserve better treatment and a Government that fronts up to this mounting health crisis, says Helen Shardey. “

“No wonder 40 percent of doctors surveyed in the Herald Sun rate the Victorian Health Minister’s performance as below average and called up him to “come clean on the inadequacies of the system and why.”

“The persistent response by the Minister that “there is more to be done” – pays lip service to the thousands of Victorians waiting for treatment,” said Mrs Shardey.

Uregent Surgeries Cancelled

Written on Friday, July 11th, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

Seriously ill Victorians are having their urgent Category 1 surgeries cancelled on a regular basis,” Helen Shardey, Shadow Minister for Health, said today.

“Freedom of Information (FoI) documents show that the Brumby Government has been economical with the truth when it claimed that 100 per cent of urgent Category 1 patients were treated within the benchmark time of 30 days. Mr Brumby and his embattled Health Minister have a lot to answer for.

“The FoI documents detail the number of Hospital Initiated Postponements (HIPS), which are not reported in the Government’s Your Hospitals report, and show that there are literally hundreds of Category 1 patients who have had their surgeries cancelled or postponed,” Mrs Shardey said.

Patients who have encountered a HIP will have already been on a waiting list to receive treatment. Therefore a HIP is another extended period of waiting that in almost all instances is beyond the control of the patient.

“Reasons given for these postponements range from no ICU beds being available, overbooked lists or no staff or surgeon available. What is alarming is that there are multiple Category 1 patients who have waited on the HIP list beyond the 30 day benchmark, even though they had already been waiting for some period prior to having their treatment postponed,” Mrs Shardey said.

The following hospitals are suffering from a system in crisis as FOI documents* show:

Name of hospital: Category 1 HIPs: No. of patients more than 30 days on HIPS: No. patients more than 30 days prior to HIPS
Royal Melbourne 278 45 79

Monash 89 4 4

Austin Health 164 22 95

St Vincent’s 26 No data provided** No data provided**

The Alfred 48 5 13

Box Hill 86 11 0

Bendigo 14 4 4

Geelong 14 2 0

*These figures relate to a three month period from 1/10/2007 to 31/12/2007
** In all categories in all individual instances – St Vincent’s Hospital was not able to provide patients with a rescheduled admission date or determine the length of waiting time prior to the HIPS.

“At the Royal Melbourne Hospital a Category 1 patient requiring urgent neurosurgery was placed on the HIP list with a further delay of 51 days to receive treatment. The reason given for the postponement was that there had been an emergency priority,” Mrs Shardey said.

“A further 36 Category 1 patients requiring procedures such as vascular surgery, vascular shunt/bypass, amputation of a limb or thoracic surgery were placed on the HIP list without any reschedule date to receive their treatment. This implies an indefinite wait for seriously ill people,” Mrs Shardey said.

“In Geelong, a Barwon Health Category 1 patient has waited 82 days for urological surgery while
another urgent Category 1 patient at Bendigo Health has been waiting for a TUR obstruction ureter/renal pelvis procedure which has been postponed without any reschedule date. This seriously ill patient had already waited 38 days prior to their postponement.

“The situation in metropolitan Victoria is equally as concerning as in regional Victoria.

“Austin Health is just as bad with one Category 1 patient waiting 162 days for the replacement of a heart valve. This person’s surgery was cancelled because of an elective priority. A further two Category 1 patients were cancelled at the Austin because there was no surgeon available while one patient waited 98 days for renal dialysis – with the procedure being cancelled because of a clerical error.

“At Monash Medical Centre two Category 1 patients have waited 52 days for thoracic surgery.

“The Alfred Hospital has also postponed urgent surgeries with two Category 1 patients both requiring a bowel resection being placed on the HIP list. One seriously ill patient has waited over 400 days – 113 days on the HIP list and 380 days prior to being postponed. The reason for the postponement was given as ‘elective priority’.

“The other Category 1 patient has waited 35 days on the HIP list and a further 48 days prior to being postponed. The reason for this postponement was given as ‘unavailability of hospital staff’.

“Sick Victorians deserve better treatment and a government that tells them the truth,” Mrs Shardey said.

“When will Mr Brumby finally realise that our health system is in crisis?”

The State of Our Hospitals — Nothing To Crow About

Written on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

Despite the Brumby Government’s rhetoric and grandiose promises, Victorians are still waiting longer for treatment in emergency departments than ever before, said Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey.

The State of Our Hospitals annual report shows that Victorians are waiting an average of 22 minutes to be seen in emergency departments, an increase of three minutes from the last report. The report also reveals that there has been a decrease in the percentage of Victorians seen within the recommended time, from 77 per cent to 74 per cent.

“What I find staggering is that 19,050 sick Victorians were categorised as overdue/extended wait and were forced to wait for a prolonged period of time before receiving their elective surgery. Category 2 patients, who are semi-urgent, are also being forced to wait longer for treatment,” said Mrs Shardey.

“Victoria is still not meeting the 80 per cent benchmark for Category 2 patients treated within 90 days.

“Our public hospitals’ performance has dropped even further from the 2006 report which showed the percentage of patients treated in 90 days had dropped to 75 per cent.

“A year later and Victoria still has the lowest availability of public hospital beds with only 2.3 beds available per 1000 people, compared with the national average of 2.6.

“It appears that nothing much has changed.

“Victoria’s public patient admissions have dropped significantly from 239 admissions per 1000 weighted population in 2005/06 to 212 admissions per 1000 weighted population in this year’s report.

“This drop shows us that although Victoria’s population has grown and the number of emergency presentations has increased, fewer patients are being admitted, which is not good enough.

“Victorians deserve a health system that treats them in a timely manner and provides a hospital bed for them when they need it,” said Mrs Shardey.

Brumby’s Dud Health Plan No Cure for Victoria’s Hospitals

Written on Friday, June 27th, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

John Brumby’s ‘new’ ten-point health plan highlights Labor’s atrocious failure in the health sector and is neither new nor innovative, Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said today.

“This ten-point plan is a muddled rehash of old announcements and shows that John Brumby is reduced to begging for more money from Canberra to camouflage Labor’s ineptitude on health,” Mrs Shardey said.

“The truly desperate nature of Labor’s ‘comprehensive reform proposal’ is illustrated by the call for the rolling out of an activity-based funding approach to hospitals across Australia when Victoria has had an activity-based funding approach in place for the last 15 years.

“John Brumby’s plea for the Commonwealth to provide at least one Medicare-funded bulk- billing GP service in emergency departments for non-emergency patients is the third policy direction his government has taken on this issue.

“The previous Coalition Federal Government and the current Labor Government were and are in support of co-located GP clinics in hospitals with very busy emergency departments.

“And Labor proposed the establishment of super clinics in the last election to ease the burden on emergency departments.

“John Brumby’s sudden realisation of the need to boost public subsidies and public provision of dental services, particularly for those most in need, reveals that Victorian Labor is opposed to the Federal decision to scrap the Medicare Dental Scheme which allowed such a subsidy in the first place.

“Instead of arrogantly strutting the national stage, John Brumby should focus on helping sick Victorians get health care and fund desperately-needed hospital beds,” Mrs Shardey said.

Brumby’s Poor Planning Fails New Victorian Mums

Written on Friday, June 27th, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

This week’s Auditor-General’s report on the new Royal Women’s Hospital reveals another shocking failure by the Brumby Government to plan and invest in the future, Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said today.

“Labor has an abysmal record in forward planning for major projects, and this time new Victorian mums are the losers,” Mrs Shardey said.

“The Brumby Government refused to invest for our growing population and build a new hospital which could cope with future demand, despite having the option to do so under the contract for construction.”

The Auditor General found that: “In light of the increased maternity demand, which became more obvious during construction, it would have been prudent for DHS and DTF to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of the option to add extra floors during the construction phase… However, we saw no evidence of any consideration by DHS during the construction period to exercise the design option to add extra floors.”

“The Metropolitan Health Strategy revealed that the Royal Women’s Hospital was projected to treat 24,652 patients in 2006/07. Theis target was exceeded a year before, in 2005/06, with the Royal Women’s Hospitals treating a staggering 32,475 patients.

“It is astounding to think that at no stage did the Brumby Government conduct consider the option of adding extra floors to the hospital while it was still being built, even though it was clear that they made a serious error in planning for the new hospital,” Mrs Shardey said.

The Auditor-General also found that: “building the additional floors during initial construction would have been far more cost effective and less intrusive to the hospital’s operations, than expanding in the future. Any short-term savings made by avoiding expansion now, will likely be invalidated by much higher costs in the future if a decision is made to expand the new RWH.”

“Instead, the government plans to address the increase in maternity demand by using existing already overburdened metropolitan hospitals,” Mrs Shardey said.

“It is clear that the Brumby Government was not interested in building a Royal Women’s Hospital which would treat Victorians for decades to come.

“Victorians deserve a government which is willing to make an investment now for our future, not a government that sticks its head in the sand while our hospitals crumble,” Mrs Shardey said.

Report Reveals Hospitals In Crisis

Written on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

The release of the Your Hospitals report today confirms Victorian hospitals are in crisis and are not a priority of the Brumby Government, with the system buckling under the pressure of the government’s inaction, said Helen Shardey, Shadow Minister for Health.

“There are 39,502 patients on the waiting list and 85,712 patients endured more than four hours waiting in the ED waiting room before being treated and discharged,” said Mrs Shardey.

“Each one of these reported figures represents a Victorian in pain, seeking treatment, yet they are only a small part of a continuing crisis. The state of Victorian hospitals has been rapidly declining and waiting lists are only increasing.

“The Brumby Government is clearly embarrassed by these figures, especially the failure to meet six out of the nine benchmarks in key critical areas, so it has chosen to release this damning report on the day of the Federal Budget,” said Mrs Shardey.

State-wide, the Your Hospitals report from July to December 2007 reveals:
· 39,502 patients are on the elective surgery waiting list, an increase of 2,305 patients since December 2006
· hospitals were on bypass for 3.7 per cent of the time, more than double the previous year
· 45,022 patients in the last six months waited on trolleys in emergency departments for more than eight hours, an increase of 9,242 patients from the previous year
· 85,712 patients in the last six months waited more than four hours in an ED waiting room before being treated and discharged, an increase of 9,959 patients from the previous year
· 12,693 patients in the last six months categorised as emergency cases waited longer than 10 minutes for treatment in an ED, an increase of 4,285 patients
· 54,588 patients in the last six months categorised as urgent waited more than 30 minutes before being treated, an increase of 11,770 patients
· 2,000 fewer elective surgeries undertaken than the previous year
· the non-urgent surgery waiting time increased by 18 days on the previous year
· the semi-urgent surgery waiting time increased four days on the previous year.

“These figures reveal only some of the patients languishing on hospital waiting lists, while tens of thousands are kept secret by the Brumby Government on unreported lists,” said Mrs Shardey.

“The only way to understand the full extent of pressures on hospitals and patients waiting for treatment is for the Brumby Government to fully disclose all their secret waiting lists.

“There has been a systematic failure by the Brumby Government in planning for the future of Victoria’s health system and hospitals. The report reveals hospitals are under pressure from all areas.

“The simple truth is Victorian hospitals are at maximum capacity and cannot cope with increased demand and an ageing population.

“The Brumby Government has severely under-estimated hospital demand, creating a chronic shortfall in funding. In so doing, they have placed Victorian hospitals under unsustainable pressure.

“This Labor government is out of touch with the basic health needs of Victorians. Even with an enormous State Budget tax windfall, Victorian hospitals have still been massively short-changed, with no major additional beds in the system,” said Mrs Shardey.

Victorians wait years for dental treatment

Written on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

“Dental figures published in the latest Your Hospitals Report shows that Victorians are being forced to wait years for dental treatment with the average waiting time across all public dental clinics at 22.79 months!” says Helen Shardey, Shadow Minister for Health.

“These figures exceed the 22 months projected in the State Budget,” says Mrs Shardey. “An average wait of two years for treatment is unacceptable. Many rural patients are being forced to wait between four and five years!”

According to the Australian Dental Association’s Garry Pearson: “Over half of the rural dental clinics experienced worse results, with 18 suffering an average deterioration of 4.61 months between June and December 2007.”

“The Government has no plans to reduce dental waiting times or dental emergencies which account for more than half the treatments,” said Mrs Shardey. “The State Budget shows the ratio of emergency to dental care is 53:47 which means that more than 50 percent of patients are being treated as emergency cases because they have been forced to wait too long for basic dental care.

“If people were treated in a timely manner their treatment would be much simpler, the fact that they are left languishing in pain often means more complex treatment needs to be undertaken and sometimes results in tooth extraction.”

Of the 58 clinics for which data is available a whopping 30 of them had a deteriorating times for access to general dental care with an average of 3.67 months deterioration.

Some of the worst areas include:

General dental care dentures
Daylesford 44 months (up five months) 21 months (up six months)
Colac 41 months (up six months) 29 months (up six months)
Belmont 24 months (up two months) 29 months (up five months)
Hoppers Crossing 27 months (up one month) 48 months (up two months)
Clayton 11 months (unchanged) 36 months (up four months)
Sunbury 19 months (unchanged) 30 months (up five months)
Lilydale 18 months (up one month) 27 months (up five months)

”With no plan to change the average 22 month waiting time for dental treatment, the Government seems content to believe that this is a reasonable time for Victorians to wait in agony for basic dental care,” says Mrs Shardey.

“How committed is Mr Brumby to helping Victorians when he has increased spending on dental services by a mere one percent?” asks Mrs Shardey.

Labor’s Kidney Failure

Written on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

A Labor election promise of a 12-chair haemodialysis centre to be established at Maroondah Hospital by the end of 2007 is still no-where near completion, says Helen Shardey, Shadow Minister for Health.

“The haemodialysis centre was announced by the then Minister for Health, Bronwyn Pike on October 12, 2006 just weeks before the last State election and almost two years on, patients in Eastern metropolitan are still waiting for the government to lay the first brick,” said Mrs Shardey.

“In a media release Ms Pike said we would expect that around 48 patients would be able to utilise the new centre once it is up and running by the end of 2007.

“We are now almost six months into 2008 and all that is visible at Maroondah Hospital is a vacant lot.

“The Brumby Government has not set a completion date and yesterday in Parliament the embattled Health Minister skirted around answering the question on the haemodialysis centre.

“Minister Andrews was clearly kept in the dark on this project and appeared to be unaware of any commitment that his government had made in 2006, reinforced by his flustered response in Parliament.

“The state government’s inaction and broken promise is causing increased stress on patients living in the outer eastern suburbs needing dialysis, who will continue to drive for hours to access their medical treatment.

“This facility was supposed to make the lives of patients from Maroondah, Yarra Ranges and surrounding areas easier, offering them the convenience of access to dialysis services closer to home, but clearly the government’s priority is self-preservation.

“In what is fast becoming the Brumby Government’s trademark of a glitzy launch with extra spin and not much substance, the embattled Minister launched Kidney Week with the usual fan-fair, neglecting the real day to day crisis faced by Victorians,” said Mrs Shardey.

The location of the vacant block earmarked for the haemodialysis centre is located in Ware Cresent, Ringwood East opposite Maroondah Hospital.

Brumby compromises patient safety

Written on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

The damning Auditor-General’s report into Patient Safety in Public Hospitals slams the Brumby Government for not doing enough to ensure prompt delivery and development of a clinical governance policy and integrated incident system which would effectively reduce incidents in Victorian hospitals, said Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey.

“The report reveals one in ten patients admitted to a hospital in Victoria are harmed as a result of their admission and almost 50 per cent of these incidents are avoidable,” said Mrs Shardey.

“The Brumby Government has failed to develop a state-wide system to monitor patient safety, which would reduce incidents of patient harm in hospitals.

“Despite a previous audit of patient safety in public hospitals in 2005 and a departmental review of quality and safety last year, there has been a distinct failure to implement all the recommendations by the state government.

“Delivery of the project by the Brumby Government is 2010, too long a wait for Victorians harmed in hospitals, and going by their previous track record of delivering on projects, Victorians can expect a delivery time blow out.

“The Auditor-General advised the Labor Government to commit to a course of action and follow it through in a timely manner and before 2010.

“Victoria is the only state in Australia that does not have an incident monitoring system in place and the duplication at all levels of the current system makes it unworkable,” said Mrs Shardey.

While the Auditor-General recognises there is some data gathered through sentinel events, infection rates and pressure ulcers, this data represents only a small portion of patient safety data and the Auditor-General called for a process that measures the system as a whole.

“Apart from the unnecessary trauma to the patients and their families, the cost of these clinical incidents is more than $500 million a year,” said Mrs Shardey.

“The safety of patients in public hospitals is of paramount importance and the Brumby Government is failing in its duty of care by not establishing recommended quality of care processes.

“It is important the Victorian community has confidence our hospital system will provide the best quality of care possible and the Brumby Government must ensure systems are in place to deliver such care,” says Mrs Shardey.

Confrontational Brumby Causes Chaos In Health System

Written on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 by administrator Be the first to Comment

The decision by members of the Medical Scientists Association of Victoria (MSAV) to take strike action commencing on February 5, against the Brumby Government’s failure to negotiate an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) in good faith will create chaos in the health system, said Helen Shardey, Shadow Health Minister.

This industrial action will take the form of rolling 24 hour daily strikes at various major hospitals across the health system.

Should the Brumby government fail to significantly progress negotiations by February 14, a 24 hour strike will be called across the system, adding further pressure to our hospitals.

“Premier Brumby’s confrontational style of negotiating with the hardworking public sector workforce is once again being felt by all Victorians,” said Mrs Shardey.

“Last year, teachers, nurses, mental health and allied health workers were forced to take strike action against the Brumby Government.

“It seems this year Victorians will continue to see the dispassionate Brumby Government’s attitude to workers in Victoria.

“The MSAV have been trying to negotiate a new EBA with the Brumby Government for more than five months and the failure of the government to finalise an agreement has led to strike action being taken.

“Retention rates of medical scientists have fallen due to the exodus of highly qualified and experienced staff leaving for better paying positions in other states.

“Pay rates in Victoria are already 30 per cent below comparable classifications in NSW and unless this is addressed, Victoria will be left with staff shortfalls in all areas of science-based health professions.

“The strike will have an enormous impact on elective surgery, especially cardiac surgery which relies on clinical perfusionists, placing increased pressure on a health system that is already struggling with long waiting lists.

“Other medical treatments which rely on pathology results, cross-matching blood and radiation therapy will also be impacted on by the strike.

“The only thing the Brumby Government and the embattled Health Minister seem to put maximum effort into is ensuring the Victorian health system is in constant chaos,” said Mrs Shardey.