Bendigo Health works to reduce surgical wait lists: data

According to the Victorian Agency for Health Information, in the height of the pandemic, Bendigo Health's median time patients waited for surgery - accounting for all specialties - remained steady around the 27-29 day mark, but increased to 42 days in mid-2022.

However, staff were able to pull numbers back in the last quarter to meet the state's median of 34 days.

Bendigo Health acting chief executive David Rosaia said staff had "worked hard during the past 12 months" to minimise the waiting list.

MORE NEWS: Popular music festival announces return to region

"Throughout last year elective surgery was impacted by government enforced-elective surgery reductions and staff furlough due to COVID and other respiratory illnesses," he said.

"Despite this, we have decreased patients on our elective surgery wait list by about 100, down from 1986 in January 2022 to 1894 today.

"We have done this through upskilling staff, scheduling additional weekend theatres, and redirecting certain patients to other health services in the region to ensure they get timely care."

Bendigo Health has shown it can keep wait times for a number of specialties such as cardiothoracic, gynaecology and general surgeries at a level better than the state average.

In the last quarter, patients looking at heart surgeries only waited 10 days to go under the knife, compared to the statewide median of 18.

However, other specialties such as ear, nose and throat (ENT) and vascular surgeries were not doing so well.

OTHER HEALTH STORIES:

The data says in the last quarter of 2022, the median wait time for ENT patients was 340 days, compared to the statewide 87 days.

Vascular patients were in similar circumstances, with Bendigo having a wait of 145.5 days.

While this data may look alarming, Mr Rosaia said context is needed to paint the full picture.

"Bendigo Health undertakes very little urgent ENT surgery and supports the transfer of patients requiring urgent surgery to Melbourne-based services," he said.

"We have instead focused on reducing the amount of time people wait to see an ENT specialist in a clinic, reducing our waiting list for ENT appointments from 1620 in December 2019 to 406 in December 2022.

"Reducing the waiting list to see an ENT specialist in a clinic enables people to get ENT surgery sooner.

"We have three people requiring vascular surgery on our elective surgery waiting list."

While the state of the health system in central Victoria has improved in some areas, the Australian Medical Association is calling for more funding to help the services overall.

MORE NEWS: City street art tour named among nation's best

If no action is taken by governments, the waiting list for elective surgery is expected to top 500,000 by June 30, AMA president Steve Robson says.

The association's latest report says the elective surgery backlog shows a system under enormous pressure and struggling to meet demand.

"Recently state premiers have talked about the dire state of the health system and the need for urgent action through national cabinet - this report highlights a key part of the system that's struggling," Professor Robson said.

"Our analysis shows hospitals can't meet demand or the recommended timeframes for surgeries and it's only going to get worse without intervention."

The report says there is an estimated elective surgery backlog of 306,281 patients nationally and this will grow to more than 500,000 by the end of the financial year if action isn't taken.

-With Australian Associated Press

Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with the Bendigo Advertiser app. Click here to download.