HOSPITAL'S HEALTHY STATS

BARWON Health is treating more people than ever before, but is still dragging the chain on some elective surgery waiting times.

In the past 12 months, nearly 71,000 patients have been admitted to Geelong Hospital, and the emergency department has treated a record 59,859 people, making it one of the busiest hospitals in the state.

The number of admissions has grown by over 18 per cent in the past five years, while bed numbers have increased just 3 per cent in the same time, reflecting a growing and ageing local population.

Releasing its annual report yesterday, Barwon Health reported 2174 patients on the Geelong Hospital elective surgery waiting list in 2011/12, up from 1801 the year before but well below its target figures of 2350.

‘‘We’ve got a ways to go, I’m not saying it’s a job finished, but it’s certainly a work in progress and it’s heading in the right direction,’’ Barwon Health CEO David Ashbridge said. ‘‘We have got areas where we still need i mprovement, there’s no question.’’

Barwon Health achieved a perfect strike rate of treating all urgent elective surgery cases within time, despite the increase in admissions.

It comes as a Victorian Health Services Performance quarterly report showed statewide waiting lists had blown out to over 46,000 in the June quarter.

Geelong Hospital bucked the statewide trend on the June quarter, with a reduction in the number of waiting list patients, down 6 per cent on the previous quarter.

Areas in need of improvement are in the semi-urgent categories of surgery, where 44 per cent of the 1391 people currently on the list have been waiting longer than the prescribed 90 days, up on last year and well above Barwon Health’s target of 20 per cent.

Current figures show there are 419 Barwon Health patients waiting on average 145 days for semi-urgent orthopaedic surgery, while 83 patients are enduring more than twice the desired wait time for vascular surgery.

Barwon Health finished the 2011/12 year in the black for the second year in a row with a small operating surplus of $179,000. Prof Ashbridge said a focus on innovation and working smarter had led to improvements in service.

‘‘We’ve never been as productive ever in the history of Barwon Health and we’ve achieved that through a small increase in beds but a huge increase in our reform and the way we do our business,’’ he said.

The State Government yesterday blamed Federal health funding cuts for harming the capacity for the state’s public hospitals to treat patients efficiently and on time.

Health Minister David Davis said the Federal Government’s share of recurrent expenditure on hospitals had dropped from 44 per cent to 39 per cent.