LATROBE Regional Hospital (LRH) has recorded significant performance improvements in its Emergency Department, according to a State Government report.
The `Your Hospitals' report also confirmed LRH is the fourth busiest hospital in country Victoria.
LRH chief executive officer, Peter Craighead welcomed the report which he said had recognised six months of hard work at the hospital.
``It shows that despite the pressures that we are under, we have improved our performance from previous years and it shows that our staff are continuing to work hard to deliver services across the community,'' Mr Craighead said.
``We are one of the five busiest rural hospitals in Victoria and being a regional hospital in Gippsland we continue to have increases in most areas.''
According to the report, LRH's Emergency Department (ED) treated 13,946 patients in the six months to the end of June 2008, an increase of 540 patients on the previous year.
The report also revealed every category one patient (urgent cases) were treated on arrival at the ED and 91 per cent of category two patients (general emergencies) were treated within 10 minutes, well above the state target of 80 per cent.
About 96 per cent of category three elective surgery patients (non-urgent) received surgery within the benchmark 365 days in the half-year to the end of June, which was better than the national target of 90 per cent.
All category one patients were admitted within 30 days.
In June, Mr Craighead revealed LRH was $4 million in the red and conceded one of the only ways to reverse the deficit was to cancel elective surgeries.
The government stepped in and injected $5 million into LRH's budget, with some of that money allocated to elective surgery.
``The challenge if you're running at a deficit is that it is often seen that elective surgeries miss out because that's the one tap you can turn off,'' Mr Craighead said.
``But this shows that despite six to eight months of cancelling elective surgeries we've still managed to deliver high level category one patients than we previously have.''
However, Mr Craighead said it had been a challenge keeping up with demand in the ED.
``Some of that demand is because of a reduction of general practitioners in the community in rural areas,'' he said.
``As a result, more people visit our ED and I think this is why there appears to be an overall growth for demand.''
Mr Craighead said planning and managing the hospital had been a massive challenge, due to the budget deficit.
But he said LRH had almost completed its master planning process and was working to secure funding for building programs and the consolidation of the nursing workforce.
He said the nursing shortage would continue to pose challenges for some time.
Health Minister, Daniel Andrews said he was impressed by the results of all Victorian hospitals.
``At a time when hospitals are treating more patients than ever before, they are also treating more of them within the benchmark times,'' Mr Andrews said.
``I want to personally thank the dedicated doctors, nurses and other health staff who have worked hard to achieve and maintain high standards on our hospitals.
He said the the community should be proud of its efforts.
The Australian Medical Association's Victorian president, Doug Travis said the Your Hospitals report revealed more Victorians were missing out on clinically appropriate care than ever before.
Dr Travis said Latrobe Regional Hospital's admissions had increased by five per cent and as a result, patients were forced to wait longer for care.
He claimed almost a quarter of Latrobe Regional Hospital category three patients suffering moderately severe blood loss, broken wrists, persistent vomiting and dehydration, waited longer than the recommended 30 minutes for treatment.
He accused the government of meeting only four of its nine public hospital targets and failing to manage the increases in emergency demand.
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