By Sahar Foladi
Dandenong Hospital is among many state hospitals with significantly lower waiting times in the emergency department since the Covid bottlenecks.
According to the Victorian Agency for Health Information, the 90th percentile wait time average has dropped to 23 minutes from July to September 2023 from 126 minutes a year earlier. The nation-wide median time is 13 minutes.
Casey Hospital reported a 34-minute median wait time for the same period with Frankston Hospital over an hour (76 minutes).
The 90th percentile waiting time is the amount of time in which 90 per cent of all patients presented to an emergency department were seen by a nurse or doctor.
A Monash Health spokesperson said a mixture of staff upskilling and multiple initiatives set in place had resulted in the positive change.
“To support the community’s health and wellbeing, Monash Health has implemented important initiatives at Dandenong Hospital’s Emergency Department and across our health service to provide excellent and timely care.
“We thank our wonderful team, which has continued to grow, at Dandenong Hospital for their outstanding work, care for patients, and upskilling which has supported reduced wait times while maintaining the quality of care we strive for.”
The change comes as a contrast to the pressures and frustrations that both the residents and staff faced as result of the pandemic.
A Greater Dandenong resident of over 20 years, Kelly Isic, shared her experience from back in September 2022.
“The first time I was taken to Dandenong Hospital by ambulance as my sugar levels were 30.5, I was not impressed with the care.
“I didn’t get a bed for seven hours.”
As previously reported by Star Journal, between January and March 2022, a staggering 46 emergency patients stayed longer than 24 hours in Casey Hospital, 43 in Dandenong and 56 at Monash Medical Centre in Clayton as hospitals grappled post-Covid effects.
Current median wait time data has remained stagnant with only a two-minute decrease since January 2023.
On the other hand category one to three waiting times in the ED have decreased from 20 minutes in July-September 2022 to nine minutes in July-September 2023.
State-wide, waits are 13 minutes for the same category and period and Casey Hospital 11 minutes.
Frankston Hospital however has seen the opposite trend as its wait times for category one to three patients have increased by three minutes since July-September 2022.
Works on the Dandenong hospital ED upgrade will commence early 2026 as part of Daniel Andrew’s $295 million upgrade election promise.
A new intensive care unit, operating theatres and a new outpatient clinic for specialist appointments will also be part of the upgrade.
Two floors will be built above the ED, expanding its capacity for an extra 12,000 patients a year.
This year, the Government has also funded Casey Hospital’s ED upgrade. It has also promised to redevelop Monash Medical Centre.
A Dandenong-based Priority Primary Care Centre (PPCC) has also helped take immense pressure off the ED by helping residents with non-life threatening illness who still require care.
Located at 1/134 Logis Boulevard in Dandenong the highly qualified team treats up to 300 urgent patients a week for free – with the capacity to treat more, as reported by Star Journal.
“We’ve got some of the best emergency doctors. The emergency nurses that work here are highly qualified,” Riekie Jooste, operations manager said.
The medical group is open from Monday to Sunday from 7am to 11pm with access to X-rays, pathology, ultrasound, CT scan, which are all accessible for after hours as well so people don’t have to go to emergency departments (ED).
