Victoria’s health system performance data has been released for the first three months of the year – a period marked by fluctuations in activity caused by the coronavirus pandemic and wide-spread bushfires.

Despite the significant interruptions caused by the pandemic, hospitals and ambulances continued to manage activity well, even as they quickly began preparations to increase capacity ahead of the predicted pandemic peak.

Ballarat Base Hospital saw 15,655 patients in the busy emergency department, up by 433 on the March quarter last year. Doctors and nurses in the Ballarat emergency department continued to treat 100 per cent of the most serious Category 1 patients immediately upon arrival in the hospital.

All of Ballarat’s Category 1 urgent elective surgery patients continued to receive their operations within the target 30 days, with half of them having their procedure within 12 days.

Ambulance Victoria reached 87.9 per cent of Code 1 cases in the City of Ballarat within the benchmark 15 minutes, with an average response time of 10 minutes and 44 seconds – well under the 15-minute target. This is despite attending 1713 Code 1 emergencies in the three months to March – up from 1508 a year earlier.

Across the state, the total number of emergency department presentations for the quarter was 469,488 – 3,400 more than the same quarter last year.

Ambulance Victoria reached 81.8 per cent of cases state-wide within the benchmark 15 minutes, with an average response time of 11 minutes and 39 seconds – well under the 15 minute target. This is despite attending 77,380 Code 1 emergencies in the three months to March, 4,695 more than for the same period a year earlier.

All Category 1 urgent elective surgery patients continued to receive their operations within the target 30 days, with half of them having their procedure within 10 days.

The overall number of people waiting for surgery is expected to rise in the coming months due to the pause on non-urgent procedures, in line with a decision by the National Cabinet. The elective surgery blitz will resume again as soon as it is safe to do so, to help reduce any backlog caused by the pandemic.

Coronavirus will continue to disrupt our health services over the coming months – with the full impact on Victoria’s health system expected to become clearer when data for the next quarter is collected and analysed.

The Victorian Government’s $1.9 billion health injection has allowed the state’s hospitals to prepare and respond to the coronavirus pandemic – building more bed capacity, securing Intensive Care Unit (ICU) equipment, staff and space to meet the expected surge in cases, bringing forward new paramedics and boosting access to and distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Quote attributable to Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison

“These are unprecedented times and I thank each and every one of our healthcare workers in Ballarat for their hard-work and continued dedication on the frontline of our pandemic response.”

 Quote attributable to Member for Buninyong Michaela Settle

“Our healthcare workers are our heroes and they’ve done an incredible job giving the Ballarat community the very best treatment throughout this busy time.”