Victorian families are suffering because the Brumby Government continues to mismanage and underfund the public health system, Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said today.

The Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services 2009 reveals Labor’s spending per person on health is the lowest in Australia.

The report also shows that Victoria has the lowest number of beds per person in Australia – just 2.4 beds compared with the Australian average of 2.7.

‘On top of these shocking revelations, there has also been a steady increase from 2003 to 2007 in the number of days sick Victorians spend waiting for elective surgery,’ Mrs Shardey said.

This is no surprise to the thousands of patients languishing on long elective surgery waiting lists, with one in five people having experienced extended waiting times.

There’s also a worrying trend emerging in our public hospitals where fewer patients are being allocated to Category 1 (urgent) surgery, prompting a blowout in Category 2 (semi-urgent) figures.

This means Victoria has 29 per cent fewer patients listed as Category 1 surgery patients than NSW, but we also have the second highest number of patients in the nation listed as Category 2.

I fear public hospitals are being discouraged to classify patients at Category 1 in order to meet their hospital benchmarks and retain their funding.”

Victoria also has the dubious distinction of being the second highest state in relation to ’sentinel’ events.

‘Sentinel’ events are defined as the number of reported adverse events that occur because of hospital system and process deficiencies which result in death or serious harm.

Of the 45 reported events in Victoria, 20 involved an operation on the wrong body part.

Victoria also has a higher unplanned hospital readmission rate than the national average, meaning that more patients are being forced to return to hospital after their initial treatment.

‘This report shows once again that Labor’s mismanagement and underfunding of the Victorian health system means Victorian families are being denied a basic health service.

‘Labor has had ten years and $250 billion in revenue but can’t deliver a basic health service to Victorian families,’ Mrs Shardey said.