Baillieu Challenges Brumby To Build For Growth With New $1 Billion Health Fund

*Coalition calls for the dedication of gaming licence revenue to rebuild hospitals, additional beds and medical equipment

*Time for real action instead of talk to meet health needs of Victorian families

Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition Leader Ted Baillieu proposed the dedication of gaming licence revenue to significantly improve facilities in the Victorian public health system with additional hospital beds, new and improved health equipment, mental health facilities and the rebuilding and upgrading of hospitals.

Speaking at the Victorian Liberal Party State Council meeting in Melbourne, Mr Baillieu proposed the establishment of a $1 billion Health Infrastructure Fund to improve the future health facilities of our state.

Mr Baillieu called on John Brumby to direct proceeds from the sale of electronic gaming machine (EGM) licences, conservatively estimated at $1 billion, towards a Health Infrastructure Fund to start rebuilding Victoria’s rundown health system.

“I challenge John Brumby to tell Victorians what better purpose he has for these funds than rebuilding our struggling hospitals and health system,” Mr Baillieu said today.

Mr Baillieu said growth and demand into the future would place real pressure on health services and hospitals and required real action now instead of talk and empty promises.

“Victoria’s hospitals are in crisis and our health system is in decline. Much of this is because of John Brumby’s failure to invest for the future,” Mr Baillieu said.

“We now have the unique opportunity of a financial windfall provided by the EGM licence sale. These funds should be directed into health infrastructure.

“We have a unique opportunity to rebuild our health and hospital infrastructure.

“John Brumby has been posturing around Australia on health, while hospital infrastructure has been allowed to run down in Victoria. If the Premier is serious about rebuilding our hospital infrastructure he will not simply try to blame the Commonwealth, he will commit the huge windfall in state funds now becoming available to the rebuilding of our hospital and health infrastructure.

“In government, we will take any uncommitted proceeds of the sale of gaming licences and place them in the Health Infrastructure Fund.

“Failing infrastructure, a chronic shortage of hospital beds and a rapidly growing and ageing population mean that health services are struggling to meet the needs of Victorian families.

“As Victoria grows, so does the pressure on essential health services and our hospitals. But all we have from John Brumby is 11 years of talk and no action.

“The sale of these licences is a one-off opportunity to invest in significantly upgrading health facilities and equipment – an investment which is desperately needed by Victorian families and our growing population,” Mr Baillieu said.

Mr Baillieu said examples of the health improvements that could be funded by a $1 billion Health Infrastructure Fund included:

*more than 2,500 acute hospital beds; or

*more than 5,400 sub-acute beds; or

*upgrades and rebuilding of run down and neglected regional hospitals; or

*new mental health facilities; or

*new medical equipment, dialysis units and operating theatres; or

*new ambulances and station facilities and community health services.

“A Health Infrastructure Fund means we can start building now for the growth to come,” Mr Baillieu said.

“Public hospitals in Victoria would benefit from this fund, whether it is by way of additional beds, medical equipment, upgrades or reconstruction.

“This investment in health facilities and equipment for Victorian families would mean real action and outcomes instead of just talk.

“A Health Infrastructure Fund could allocate funds to regional and rural hospitals, community health services, mental health and dental health equipment and facilities based on demand, need, population growth and hard evidence from practitioners and experts.

“The Health Infrastructure Fund would operate in addition to ongoing annual contributions to hospital and health infrastructure from the State Budget and funding provided by the Commonwealth Government.

“In Victoria today, nearly 38,400 people are currently waiting on public lists for elective surgery, with countless more Victorians on hidden waiting lists.

“Time to treatment is growing alarmingly – when Labor was elected in 1999, a patient would wait an average of 35 days for semi-urgent surgery, but today that figure has blown out to 50 days.

“And according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Victoria can no longer claim to have the best-performing hospitals in Australia.

“Our emergency departments are overflowing with a record number of Victorians walking out rather than waiting hours for care, we have the lowest number of hospital beds per person of any state, hospital waiting lists have been systematically manipulated and we have the highest rate of unplanned patient re-admission in the nation.

“John Brumby has failed to plan for health and hospital services that are vital to cope with our needs, and he selectively hands out capital funding for health services from a pork barrel with no long-term planning for sustainable hospital resources and services.

“These funds would provide a dedicated additional funding stream to rebuild and secure our hospital and health system for the future.

“I call on John Brumby to take this opportunity and ensure gaming machine licence revenue is spent on much-needed health equipment and facilities,” Mr Baillieu said.

Hospital Data To Be Publicly Available

A Baillieu Coalition Government will overhaul access to information about Victorian hospitals by requiring data on the performance of our public hospital emergency departments (EDs) to be made publicly accessible online in real time.

For the first time ever Victorians will be able to monitor from their homes how many people are waiting in the ED of their local hospital, current waiting times, and whether ambulances are being accepted or sent away from the hospital.

Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition Leader Ted Baillieu said Victorians deserved to know the truth about their hospitals and should be able to compare the performance of different EDs.

“The Brumby Government’s record of cover-up and manipulation of hospital waiting lists means it cannot be trusted to tell Victorians the truth about our hospitals,” Mr Baillieu said.

“Last year the Auditor-General found that important data used to assess hospital performance, allocate funds, and report to government and the public on ED performance were flawed because of the Brumby Government’s data manipulation.

“A Baillieu Government will end the cover-up and manipulation and be open and accountable with Victorians by making key performance data for emergency departments available to the public via a website.

“Hospital EDs help vulnerable Victorians facing critical health risks, so ED performance is critical to patient confidence and all Victorians.

“Our overhaul of reporting and transparency means Victorians will be able to view and assess for themselves the performance of their local hospital ED and hospital EDs across the state, which will inform their personal health decisions,” Mr Baillieu said.

The website will make available for the first time key hospital performance data in real time including:

*ED attendances by urgency (triage) category;

*ED attendances and median waiting time;

*ED admissions;

*current ED activity;

*a weekly ED activity report;

*the number of ED patients with a length of stay greater than 24 hours;

*the number of mental health patients waiting longer than 8 hours in the ED for admission;

*ambulance attendances;

*ambulance diversions, including both ambulance bypass and Hospital Early Warning System (HEWS) incidences; and

*the number of ambulance “ramping” occasions and ramping in hours (“ramping” occurs when a patient has to wait in the ambulance at the hospital because there are no free beds in the hospital).

Data will be available from all Victorian public hospitals which are currently included in the Your Hospitals report.
Mr Baillieu said other states such as Western Australia had already introduced such websites – see http://www.health.wa.gov.au/emergencyactivity/home/ – and there was no reason that Victorians should not benefit from such transparency.

The website would be fully operational by June 2011 with an initial budgetary commitment of $4 million over four years.

The website would be administered by the Department of Health with daily data updates in addition to real time information such as whether the hospital was on by pass..

“It’s time to end the hiding of key statistics and important information about the performance of our public hospital emergency departments which is par for the course under John Brumby,” Mr Baillieu said.

The Auditor-General’s Access to Public Hospitals: Measuring Performance report in April 2009 stated that: ‘Open and transparent reporting is fundamental to making a fair assessment of performance and accountability’ but also pointed out that the Brumby Government’s ‘method chosen for presenting performance over time against the emergency access indicators [in the Your Hospitals report] does not provide the reader with a readily accessible view of performance trends’.

The Auditor-General also found ‘Given that access indicators are a core part of the accountability framework under which hospitals operate, it is most concerning that the audit found fundamental flaws both with data accuracy and the rigour of data capture processes…Unfortunately, it is one of the findings of this audit that the reliability of access performance data by public hospitals cannot be assured…Your Hospitals is also limited in that it excludes…the indicator measuring waits of more than 24 hours in the emergency department. These indicators report against experiences the public can readily understand and are useful in presenting a comprehensive picture of health system performance’.

In addition, the Brumby Government has never declared ambulance ramping data, with the only available data being released by the Ambulance Employees Union and widespread reports of ambulance ramping being swept under the carpet by John Brumby and Health Minister Daniel Andrews.

The Brumby Government has also refused to release Hospital Early Warning System data because it would be embarrassing for Labor, with the only HEWs data in the public domain included in the Auditor-General’s May 2004 report entitled Managing emergency demand in public hospitals and information recently provided by Ambulance Victoria to the Upper House health inquiry.

The Coalition plan will improve measurement of access to emergency care by ambulances as recommended in the Auditor General’s report, which noted: ’The ability of patients, transported by ambulance, to access the most appropriate hospital quickly can be a matter of life or death’. The Coalition plan will reflect the Auditor-General’s call to ’address the need to measure hospital performance in both their ability to be available to ambulance arrivals, as well as the timeliness with which they accept patients arrived by ambulance’.

The Council of Australian Governments has called for greater transparency in health system reporting and accountability and the Coalition’s plan would significantly improve the openness and accountability of Victoria’s emergency departments and their responsiveness to the Victorian community.

“Our plan will improve patient knowledge and choice and provide greater accountability and integrity and is an important first step in restoring integrity to the Victorian health system after years of Labor spin and deception.

“This website and the data available from it form part of a serious commitment by the Coalition to improve the integrity, reliability and accuracy of health information and data accessible by the Victorian public.

“Victorian taxpayers deserve the truth about our hospitals instead of more deception from a self-serving manipulative Labor Government,” Mr Baillieu said.

COALITION TO INTRODUCE TOUGH NEW LIQUOR OFFENCES

A Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition Government will introduce tough new offences relating to anti-social behaviour at or near licensed premises as well as higher penalties for failing to leave licensed premises when drunk, violent or quarrelsome.

“As part of our suite of policy reforms in this area, we will introduce two new offences that specifically target sources of violent and aggressive behaviour around licensed venues,” Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition Leader Ted Baillieu said.

“Being denied entry to a venue or being required to leave is no excuse for violent and aggressive behaviour,” Mr Baillieu said.

“Police and venue operators say that many incidences of aggression on the street stem from people who have been refused entry to or removed from licensed premises engaging in violent and aggressive behaviour in the immediate vicinity.

“A Coalition Government will not tolerate a mindless few threatening the safety of the responsible majority. We will take tough action against individuals who behave irresponsibly with these new laws and increased penalties,” Mr Baillieu said.

A Victorian Coalition Government will:

· introduce a new offence of remaining in the immediate vicinity of a licensed premises which an individual has been refused entry to or ejected from;
· introduce a new offence of re-entering a licensed premises within 24 hours of being refused entry to, or ejected from, the premises; and
· increase penalties by 150 per cent for failing to obey a direction to leave licensed premises when drunk, violent or quarrelsome.

These announcements follow the Coalition’s pledge to ban violent offenders from licensed premises for two years where alcohol is found to have been a contributing factor to their actions, and the introduction of a demerit points liquor licensing system that will lead to instant liquor licence suspensions for repeat offenders.

“The Brumby Government’s failure to deal with violence in and around licensed venues has created an environment of fear for many Victorians,” Mr Baillieu said.

“The Coalition recognises that responsibility is a two-way street. Liquor licensees need to obey the law, but so do patrons. The Coalition understands the importance of individual
responsibility in liquor licensing laws.”

The new offences will be:

1. Loitering in vicinity after being refused entry or being required to leave

Aggressive behaviour from people who have been refused entry to licensed premises is a significant cause of violent and aggressive incidents. Currently, there is no specific law dealing with such behaviour.

Being refused admission to, or ejected from, a licensed venue does not provide an excuse for violent, aggressive or threatening behaviour in the vicinity of the premises.

A Coalition Government will introduce a new offence, which makes it illegal for a person to remain on the footpath or area adjacent to licensed premises where the person has been refused entry to, or required to leave, the premises. This offence will carry a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units, with an infringement notice carrying a penalty of 5 penalty units ($584.10).

2. Returning to a premises within 24 hours after exclusion

Labor’s liquor laws have a loophole which means that a person removed from a premises by a licensee can attempt to re-enter the premises without consequence.

Many licensees have had the experience of requiring a person to leave their premises because they have become drunk or aggressive, only to find that the person has re-entered the premises later in the evening.

A Coalition Government will introduce a new offence, which makes it illegal for a person who has been required to leave a premises under s.114(2) to re-enter that premises within 24 hours. This offence will carry a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units, with an infringement notice carrying a penalty of 5 penalty units ($584.10).

Increased penalties for failing to leave a licensed premises if drunk, violent or quarrelsome

Liquor licensees face tough penalties if they have drunk people on their premises. However, the on-the-spot fines for individuals who refuse to leave licensed premises when required to do so are relatively small, sending a mixed message.

Licensees who do the right thing by ordering drunk, violent or quarrelsome patrons from their venues should be backed by appropriately tough sanctions if they are ignored.

An infringement notice for breaching s.114(2) of the Liquor Control Reform Act presently carries a penalty of 2 penalty units ($233.64 at current rates). A Coalition Government will increase the penalty incurred under an infringement notice for a breach of this provision by 150 per cent to 5 penalty units ($584.10).

Children’s Teething Problems

The Auditor-General’s Report The New Royal Children’s Hospital a public private partnership highlights concerns in relation to a $35 million donation that was expected to come from the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation and was underwritten by consortium partner Babcock and Brown International.

Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said it had now emerged that due to the downturn in global financial markets there uncertainty about whether this $35 million would be available to the project.

The bottom line will be that unless this money is forthcoming either through the Royal Children’s Hospital or Babcock and Brown, taxpayers will have to meet the shortfall, Mrs Shardey said.

The A-G’s report also raises concerns about the failure of the Department of Human Services to develop a state-wide plan for the delivery of paediatric services despite a recommendation by the A-G on this matter going back to 2002.

A very complicated financial arrangement which involves the transfer of ownership of the Royal Children’s Hospital project to Babcock and Brown Partnerships, a subsidiary of original project sponsor Babcock and Brown International, is raised by the A-G as another concern. (p72)

According to the A-G this transfer took place in 2008 with the approval of the Minister for Health but apparently without his department providing him with documented legal advice.

The A-G raised some real concerns about the currency of the information put to the Minister which formed the basis of the department’s advice on this matter, Mrs Shardey said.

In the planning for the hospital the A-G noted that the Minister’s department was unable to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the development, operation and internal logic of its own forecasting model.

The A-G report noted that the Minister’s department also failed to provide evidence to show how advice from doctors and clinicians was taken into account when making adjustments to forecasts of increased demand at the hospital, Mrs Shardey said.

It is obvious that the Brumby Government based its projections for Victorian children’s healthcare needs on a declining birth rate forecast back in 2002, which everyone now knows was inaccurate and infact on the contrary, the birth rate in Victoria has actually grown substantially.

Here we have yet another A-G report demonstrating a failure by the Minister for Health to provide leadership or vision, or to plan appropriately for and adequate Victorian healthcare system, Mrs Shardey said.

Brumby Fails To Improve Victoria’s Drinking Water Quality

The Brumby Government has failed again to improve the quality of Victoria’s drinking water, with water suppliers detecting E.coli, aluminium and dangerous parasites in supplies between 2007 and 2008.

Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said Victoria’s poor water quality was putting Victorian families at risk.

The Annual report on drinking water quality in Victoria 2007-08 released today by the Department of Human Services details 195 water quality alerts the same number of threats as the previous year.

The report found:

· Parks Victoria’s Lakeside-Candlebark Campground in the Lake Eildon National Park continues to harbour E. coli, and has done so for three out of the last four years.

· Evidence of Cryptosporidium a nasty parasite that caused the contamination of Sydney’s water supply in 1998 at Altona.

· Taste and odour issues at various locations including Emerald, Monbulk, Silvan, Dandenong and Brighton.

· E. coli cultivating at Cranbourne, Seaford, Bonbeach, Rosebud, Kooweerup, Upper Beaconsfield, Mt Eliza, Nar Nar Goon, Noble Park, Wallan, Emerald, Gembrook, Warranwood, Doncaster, Werribee South and Warburton, and a very high level reading at Monbulk in March 2008.

In January 2008 Kalorama Reservoir near Monbulk recorded E. coli readings that were worse than Melbourne’s Yarra River, Mrs Shardey said.

There is something very wrong with the Brumby Government when for two years it has failed to address recurring water quality issues.

The Brumby Government is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to build a pipeline from drought-stricken northern Victoria which won’t have access to any water while Victorians are facing potential health issues.

With the failure of Health Minister Daniel Andrews to manage our hospitals, waiting lists and emergency wards, the last thing Victorian hospitals need is the pressure of an E. Coli outbreak in our drinking water.

The provision of pure, safe water is the most basic service taxpayers expect the government to deliver. The Brumby Government must fix the fundamentals and put the health of Victorian families first, Mrs Shardey said.

More Ambulance Delays Prompt More Excuses From Labor

An 18-minute wait for an ambulance to travel just 200 metres, or two blocks, from the Maryborough Ambulance Station to the local football oval after the collapse and subsequent death of a young footballer earlier this month is another tragic reminder of the Brumby Government’s failure to adequately staff country ambulance stations.

Shadow Health Minister Helen Shardey said the admission by Ambulance Victoria that the appalling ambulance delay was caused by a systems breakdown would add to the grief of the family of 24-year-old Carl Lawrence, who died in Maryborough on 4 April.

While John Brumby and Daniel Andrews boast about Labor’s health record, Maryborough residents and country Victorians who don’t have access to appropriate levels of care in an emergency are left to suffer, Mrs Shardey said.

It is a disgrace that the Maryborough ambulance service was unmanned because paramedics were on a fatigue break without being replaced and the Health Minister Daniel Andrews should explain why country Victorians are being denied adequate ambulance services.

Ambulance Victoria also said it was disappointed its response time was longer than what it would have been had Maryborough had coverage, and Carl’s family will never know whether a faster response time would have saved their son’s life.

A quicker response would have afforded Carl Lawrence the best possible care available, care that was denied to him because of the Brumby Government’s failure to adequately staff country ambulance stations.

Concerns have been raised for a number of years about the shortage of paramedics in Maryborough and the consequent risk to lives.

Carl Lawrence’s family is not the only Victorian family to have suffered because of a lack of adequate country ambulance services.

In January a 38-year-old Barooga woman died from complications following an ectopic pregnancy after waiting two hours for an ambulance to transfer her from Cobram District Hospital to Shepparton for emergency surgery.

John Brumby and his incompetent Minister for Health should take responsibility for the failures in Victoria’s health system which put lives at risk, Mrs Shardey said.

More Broken Promises — More Babies Missing Out

Thousands of newborn babies are missing out on vital neo-natal hearing tests despite Labor’s 2006 election promise, Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said today.

In 2006 the Labor Government promised that if re-elected, it would roll out a program of neo-natal hearing testing for every newborn baby in 70 public and private hospitals across the state because early identification of hearing problems was vital in giving children the speech and language skills they need to make the most of their lives.
(Bronwyn Pike, Bendigo, October 30 2006).

Almost three years have passed and only a quarter of Victoria’s hospitals have the program the Health Minister should hang his head in shame, Mrs Shardey said.

The Brumby Government is once again failing the most vulnerable Victorians.

There is something very wrong with the Brumby Government when Bendigo where this election promise was made doesn’t even have a neo-natal hearing program. In fact all but one public country hospital has been duped on this commitment.

Four-year-old Bendigo child Jacob Floyd is one of many victims of this government’s neglect of the health system.

Born profoundly deaf, his condition was not discovered until he was 15 months old. His mother Andrea believes that if Jacob had lived in Melbourne, his condition would have been diagnosed earlier, which means he would have received therapy to help with his language skills much sooner.

Mrs Floyd said if the government had fulfilled its election promise, Jacob would have been fitted with his cochlear implant almost a year earlier and would be starting school next year, but because he missed out on promised healthcare his mum says Jacob is not nearly ready for school.

Now the government says the program will not be fully implemented until June 2011, seven months after the next state election.

How can the Premier and his embattled Health Minister expect Victorians to trust them when only 11 programs have been introduced since the 2006 announcement and 52 hospitals have missed out?

Country Victorians are sick of this government’s contempt. They deserve action, not empty promises, and the Brumby Government needs to be held accountable for its failure to deliver basic health services, Mrs Shardey said.

Hospital Waiting List Manipulation Exposed

The revelation of details of hospital waiting list manipulation is further evidence that the Brumby Government is hiding the true extent of delays in our hospitals, Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said today.

The Brumby Labor Government has misrepresented and covered up the crisis in our health system, and has consistently denied waiting list manipulation.

For more than twelve months, the Opposition has repeatedly raised serious concerns over the accuracy and under-reporting of Victorian hospital waiting lists, Mrs Shardey said.

Each time the Brumby Government has responded with denials. It now appears there is significant evidence that confirms our concerns over secret waiting lists.

Today I have written to the Chairman of the Upper House Inquiry into Hospital Performance and requested the Committee investigate the records and files on the manipulation of hospital waiting lists and bring these files before the Committee’s hearings.

The Labor Government is engaged in a systematic attempt to conceal the true extent of failures in the delivery of basic services.

These revelations today follow on from an Ombudsman’s report last week which revealed crime statistics had been under-reported for years by the Brumby Government.

I think increasingly Victorians are realising that the boasts of the Brumby Government are without foundation.

After nearly 10 years and $250 billion, the Brumby Government’s spending per person on health is the lowest in Australia. This is putting unprecedented pressure on our health system and is impacting on the lives of Victorians.

Last week Dr Peter Lazzari was sacked after he made a submission to the Upper House Inquiry into Public Hospital Performance outlining serious issues in the health system and in particular the manipulation of waiting lists.

John Brumby has refused to guarantee that all public sector workers are free to volunteer evidence and submissions to government inquiries without fear of retribution, Mrs Shardey said.

Labor Scraps Ambulance Victoria First Aid Training

Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said it was shameful that less than a year after merging Victoria’s rural and metropolitan ambulance network Labor will scrap Ambulance Victoria’s first aid training services.

An alert recently posted on the Ambulance Victoria website reads: Ambulance Victoria First Aid will soon be withdrawing from providing First Aid training. Public courses will be conducted up to the end of April 2009. No more bookings will be taken for onsite First Aid training.

Mrs Shardey said it was outrageous that first aid training for Anaphylaxis Management (treatment for anaphylactic shock) was one of the programs that would no longer be available from Ambulance Victoria’s service, particularly when the Brumby Government made such training mandatory in schools.

The website also notes that the First Aid Training and Qualifications division of Ambulance Victoria employs 12 full-time staff and more than 100 part time instructors.

These instructors conduct courses specifically tailored to save lives in workplaces and at home, Mrs Shardey said.

The division is managed from Ballarat and training is conducted at outlets including Bairnsdale, Ballarat, Bendigo, Colac, Geelong, Hamilton, Mildura, Sale, Swan Hill, Traralgon West, Warrnambool, Wangaratta and Wodonga.

How many more programs can the Brumby Government cut from rural and regional health services? Mrs Shardey said.

Not only has this Labor Government made it more difficult for vulnerable Victorians to access hospital care through lack of hospital beds and closure of maternity services, now it is limiting rural and regional access to first aid training, Mrs Shardey said.

Outside metropolitan Melbourne someone’s first aid training can often be the difference between life and death for a workmate or family member in an emergency.

The Brumby Government should be boosting health services, not scrapping first aid training programs that provide local jobs and save lives, Mrs Shardey said.

Labor’s Health Spend Lowest In Australia

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.