Victorians are waiting less time than ever before for elective surgery and urgent specialist appointments, despite huge surges in the number of people attending hospitals driven by an unprecedented flu season, new data shows.

Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Jenny Mikakos today released the hospital and ambulance performance data for the September quarter and thanked our hardworking doctors, nurses and paramedics for rising to meet record demand.

The unprecedented flu season started early and hit hard with more than 66,000 laboratory-confirmed cases, meaning hospitals have had to treat far more patients than anticipated this winter. The Andrews Labor Government recently topped up hospital funding with a massive $200 million flu package.

The latest state-wide performance data shows hospitals saw 474,175 patients in EDs – 23,300 more than a year earlier. Despite this, 100 per cent of the Category 1 most urgent patients were treated immediately upon arrival.

Ambulance services also managed an increasing number of emergency cases for the quarter with 78,130 Code 1 call-outs to September. This is up from 69,753 in the same quarter a year earlier.

Despite the additional pressure on hospitals, elective surgery patients received their operations quicker than ever before – with more than half of all elective patients receiving their operations within 26 days.

More than half of Category 1 urgent patients received their surgery within 10 days – well under the 30-day benchmark.

The Labor Government’s investment in streamlining access to hospital specialist clinics has also seen sustained improvement in wait times – with more than half of all urgent patients seeing a specialist within 16 days.

Northern Hospital provided operations for 100 per cent of its Category 1 elective surgery patients within the benchmark 30 days, more than half of them within 12 days – one day quicker than the previous three months.

Our dedicated paramedics managed more than 8300 extra callouts across the state in the September quarter, arriving within the benchmark of 15 minutes for 83.3 per cent of Code 1 calls – a huge improvement from 71.8 per cent in 2014 under the Liberal Nationals.

Whittlesea City’s times continue to improve, with Code 1 ambulances arriving in an average 11 minutes 7 seconds – an improvement on the 11:26 arrival time a year earlier. And 83.9 per cent of Whittlesea’s ambulances arrived within 15 minutes, more than the 81.9 per cent a year prior.

In Whittlesea ambulances responded to 2587 Code 1 calls for the three months, up on the 2249 call-outs in the September quarter 2018.

The Labor Government has invested a record $1 billion to deliver more paramedics, more vehicles and more stations. This includes a big $299 million boost in the Victorian Budget 2019/20.

Quotes attributable to Member for Mill Park Lily D’Ambrosio

“Victoria’s hospitals and ambulance service have done a tremendous job keeping up their high levels of patient care – during our worst flu season on record.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Thomastown Bronwyn Halfpenny

“It’s great to see our health and ambulance services achieving such good results at a time when they’ve been at their busiest.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Yan Yean Danielle Green

“We back our health and ambulance services because even during busy times like this Victorians deserve the very best care, when they need it – close to home.”