By Victoria Stone-Meadows
Dandenong Hospital Emergency Department has been flooded by a massive influx of patents over the summer.
According to figures released by the State Government, almost half a million people found themselves in emergency rooms at hospitals in Victoria this summer.
Victorian Health Services Performance data shows Dandenong Hospital has had a significant increase in emergency patents and the influx is reflected in the data.
Between October and December last year, 18,073 patients presented to Dandenong Hospital Emergency Department, an increase of just under 5 per cent on the same time in 2015.
Of those patents admitted by the department, 73 per cent were treated within the target time for their triage category, a drop from 84 per cent over 2015.
The best performing triage categories were code one and five with 100 per cent of code one patents being seen immediately and 93 per cent of code five patents being seen within two hours.
Code two, three and four categories, which aim to see to patents within 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and an hour respectively, had an average of 72 per cent of patents being treated on time.
Monash Health Director of Emergency Medicine Dr Neil Goldie said the large number of births in the growing region contributed to the increase in patent numbers.
“The south-east of Melbourne is one of Australia’s fastest growing regions and is experiencing an unprecedented baby boom,” he said.
Ambulance response times in Greater Dandenong have not changed with the average wait time for code one emergencies in the last quarter of 2015 being 11.29 minutes, the same time as the second quarter of 2016.
Shadow Minister for Health Mary Wooldridge said the ambulance response times show that Premier Daniel Andrews has not kept his election promise to improve ambulance response times.
“The Daniel Andrews was happy to talk big before the election but clearly is failing to deliver and Victorians are losing out,” she said.
