Connecting people and communities Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook
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Tuesday, 29 April, 2014
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SPORT
Shown where it hurts By CHARLENE MACAULAY EMERGENCY department figures at Footscray’s Western Hospital are improving but still fall below many State Government targets. The Victorian Health Services Performance Report for the December 2013 quarter shows the hospital’s emergency department failed to treat its category two patients within the State Government benchmarks for the second consecutive quarter, with 79 per cent of patients treated within 10 minutes. The State Government target is 80 per cent. Category two patients are people suffering from a critical illness or very severe pain, such as chest pain. Meanwhile, 84.4 per cent of ambulance transfers were completed within 40 minutes - short of the 90 per cent target - and 52 per cent of emergency department patients are treated within four hours, significantly below the benchmark of 75 per cent. The elective surgery list remained relatively stable, with 1967 people on the waiting list. A total 9320 patients presented
to Western Hospital’s emergency department in the three months to the end of December. From that, 5012 patients were admitted, up from 4937 in the previous quarter. Western Health CEO Alex Cockram welcomed the results. Assoc Prof Cockram said she was particularly pleased to see that elective surgery admissions for the quarter also exceeded the set target. “Western Health has received further elective surgery funding for patients to be treated between February and June 2014, which will enable us to treat more patients who are awaiting elective surgery,” she said. “It is also worth noting that the hospital initiated postponement rate was well below the state-wide benchmark of eight per cent, at 5.9 per cent for the quarter.” Assoc Prof Cockram said time spent on bypass had decreased, while emergency care figures showed an improvement in meeting the clinically recommended triage times for category one to five emergency patients.
Wicked reading
NOVA Weetman has taken the plunge into young adult fiction in her latest book. The author, who has written for popular TV shows like Neighbours and Pixel Pinkie, has taken a darker turn in her new book The Haunting of Lily Frost. Read the full Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI story on page 7. 118771
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