By CLAIRE THWAITES
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SCROLL TO BELOW THIS STORY TO POST A COMMENT.
AMBULANCES at Dandenong Hospital are wasting hundreds of hours each month waiting for patients to be transferred to hospital staff.
Documents obtained under freedom of information have revealed ambulances wasted up to 900 hours per month last year ‘ramping’ at the hospital.
Ramping refers to the time between an ambulance arriving at the hospital and the patient being removed from the ambulance stretcher to a hospital bed.
The FOI documents reveal Dandenong was one of the worst offenders of high ramping times in the state last financial year, with Monash Medical Centre being the worst, and Frankston Hospital not far behind.
In 2010-11, Dandenong Hospital recorded 10,500 hours of transfer time, up from 6678 in 2009-10. A total of 8058 have been recorded up to March for the current financial year.
Opposition parliamentary secretary for health Wade Noonan, who obtained the documents, said the ramping time indicated the Victorian health system was “constantly in gridlock”.
Ambulance Employees Australia secretary Steve McGhie said these waiting times were part of the reason ambulance officers could not meet their response time targets.
Mr McGhie said the staff at Dandenong Hospital were “fantastic” but there was “nothing they can do” about the bed shortage creating the long waiting times.
Southern Health senior manager of government relations Suzana Talevski said they would continue to work with Ambulance Victoria and the Department of Health to make off-load times more efficient.
THE FIVE WORST
The worst hospitals for ambulance waiting times for the 2010-11 financial year were:
1. Monash Medical Centre: 13,137 hours
2. Frankston Hospital: 12,284 hours
3. Austin Hospital: 11,175 hours
4. Royal Melbourne Hospital: 11,152 hours
5. Dandenong Hospital: 10,500 hours
For all the latest breaking news, visit greaterdandenongweekly.com.au. Follow the Greater Dandenong Weekly on Twitter @DandenongWeekly.
