Emergency department wait times spike at Warrnambool Base Hospital

Data released by the Victorian Agency for Health Information on Friday showed one in ten patients at the hospital waited for more than three hours before being seen by a doctor.

The new data covers the three months from July to September 2022 and shows those longest waiting patients having to wait an hour longer than they did at the same time last year.

The figures showed patients had to wait longer at the Warrnambool emergency department than at almost any other hospital in Victoria, with only four out of the more than 40 listed hospitals showing longer wait times.

While the average wait time in Warrnambool was much shorter at 35 minutes, it had risen by more than 50 per cent since last year.

The new data also showed the percentage of patients staying less than four hours in emergency dropping from 53 per cent to under 45 per cent over the past year. At the same time, the number of patients staying in emergency for more than 24 hours has more than doubled in just six months (though this is still fewer than one in 1000 patients).

The proportion of patients getting seen by a doctor within the government-recommended time frame has also dropped nearly 25 per cent, with the majority not being attended to on time. This also put Warrnambool in the worst handful of listed hospitals for attendance times.

Several people left comments on The Standard's website and social media pages with stories of lengthy wait times, with one woman saying she waited for 10 hours with her husband despite being triaged as "urgent". Others described six or seven-hour waits, while another woman said she witnessed people deciding to return home after presenting to ED on Saturday because the wait times were too long.

One area where the hospital had maintained a strong record was ambulance transfers, with around 98 per cent of patients transferred to ED within 40 minutes.

The blowout in wait times can't be attributed to a spike in patient numbers, with hospital presentations staying almost identical to the same time last year.

The Standard understands staffing pressures may be a factor after two and a half years of enormous workload throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. A SWH spokesperson said the hospital's emergency department layout needed to be reconfigured to improve workflow and the hospital was working on an interim solution with a more thorough redevelopment still years away.

The spokesperson said the COVID-19 pandemic had affected patient care "around Australia and the world" and SWH was trying to deliver care "as efficiently and safely as possible".

"We know it can be challenging to be faced with longer than expected wait times, but all our patients can be assured that those with the most critical needs will always be prioritised," the spokesperson said.

"We will continue to address our wait times and also work hard to expand the size of our ED workforce to support our existing team who continue to do an amazing job."

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