One in ten available hospital beds in Victoria is not being used and 18 per cent of operating theatres are closed, an interim report into the state’s public health system has revealed.
The independent Travis Review, headed by former Australian Medical Association Victoria president Dr Doug Travis, was commissioned by the Andrews Government to identify the number of beds in the state and recommend strategies to improve capacity.
The interim report released on Wednesday found that of Victoria’s 13,981 inpatient public beds, more than 1,400 were closed at any one time.
Of the 290 operating theatres, 53 were closed across the state on average.
Almost 100 of the 12,000 treatment places in emergency care were also closed.
It also found the majority of hospital beds not in use were at major metropolitan health services.
The report did not include mental health beds.
“The Victorian public hospital system is well equipped in terms of the physical capacity of facilities to meet the immediate challenges of a growing population with increasing demand for health services,” Dr Travis said.
“However, not all facilities meet community expectations and contemporary standards for hospital facilities.
“In some areas there is a mismatch between facilities, funding and demand.”
The 15 recommendations made by Dr Travis included a statewide service and infrastructure plan to guide the allocation of future resources.
He said there also needed to be a “fundamental shift” in the way hospital capacity was measured.
“The number of hospital beds and, more particularly, the change in the number of beds over time is no
longer a good measure of a hospital’s ability to treat increasing numbers of patients,” he said.
“This fundamental shift in thinking is because of changes in technology and practice that enable care to be delivered with less time in hospital — either at home or in an alternative community setting.
“For this reason, I recommend that, when you are considering capacity issues, there should be a greater focus on reporting the proportion of patients who fail to be treated within clinically recommended timeframes, outpatient appointment waiting times and the time it takes to clear a waiting list.”
Coalition governments put ‘pressure’ on health system
Health Minister Jill Hennessy said Victoria’s health system was under “enormous pressure” due to cuts made by Coalition governments.
“The former Victorian Liberal Government cut $1 billion from our health system and the Abbott Government is set to slash $13 billion from our public hospitals over the next ten years,” she said.
“[The review] confirms that there are beds available in hospitals that aren’t being used.
“We’re going to use this data to ensure we fund the right type of beds in the right health services so Victorians get the care they need, where and when they need it.”
But Opposition health spokesperson Mary Wooldridge said the report was an endorsement of its health initiatives.
“Doug Travis says the health system is well equipped to deal with the demands of growth that the health system faces,” Ms Wooldridge said.
“But once again we’ve had all talk, no action from the Government on this report … that they commissioned.”
She said a number of beds classified as unused by the report were new ones created by the Coalition and about to become active.
The Australian Medical Association welcomed the review, saying it finally revealed how many beds Victoria actually has and how many weren’t being utilised.
The Victorian Government said it had already committed $200 million to a “Beds Rescue Fund” to open beds and other points of care that are currently closed.
Dr Travis will hand down his final report by the end of June.