MORE than a hundred people gave up waiting for treatment and walked out of the emergency department of a Melbourne hospital in one week, it has been revealed.
EPPING’S Northern Hospital has pledged to improve the figure, although it says the 105 patients who gave up waiting typically had minor and non-life threatening ailments or injuries.
“These patients are typically category four or five and can be treated by their local GP,” a Northern Health spokesman said on Friday. “We are committed to our patients and treating them in a timely manner. “Recent improvements resulted in only seven people leaving the emergency department yesterday.” The spokesman said all people arriving at the emergency department were assessed but treatment wait times for non-urgent cases could increase during peak times. The hospital had a five per cent increase in patient presentations during September. Fairfax Media has reported the content of leaked emails from hospital management calling for improvement. Deputy opposition leader James Merlino said the emails showed a hospital “clogged and out of control” and Victorian government funding cuts were to blame. “These are the worst figures in Victoria, over the last 12 months almost 6000 people leaving the emergency department,” Mr Merlino also said. “You can’t tell me all of those didn’t need treatment.” Premier Denis Napthine said the government had allocated more than $50 million to rebuild the hospital’s emergency ward and add 30 beds. “It takes time to build new hospital infrastructure,” Dr Napthine said. “If you go to the Northern Hospital now, you’ll see people at work, you’ll see cranes at work, construction in progress because this coalition government is fixing the problem we inherited from the previous Labor government.”