Victoria’s public hospitals are demonstrating continuous improvement and outperforming expectations – particularly across planned surgery with fewer people on waiting lists and increases in the number of Victorians getting treatment.
Key points
Hospitals are demonstrating continuous improvement and outperforming expectations across key metrics, including planned surgery and ambulance transfer times.
While there remains ongoing pressure across the system, hospitals are continuing to deliver stable and, in some instances, better performance across many indicators, with improvements in transfers from ambulance to emergency departments, response times and reductions in the median time to treatment. This is a positive sign that some of the challenges facing the healthcare system are stabilising, noting there are more opportunities to guide system improvement.
With the new National Health Reform Agreement earmarked for the end of 2025, there is an opportunity for multi-year funding that supports growth and innovation and reflects a longer-term vision for the sector.
Data from the Victorian Agency for Health Information shows improvements across the public healthcare system. There were 58,264 planned surgery patients treated this quarter, up 11.5% on the same time last year. Up to 85% of planned surgery patients were treated within recommended time, up 2.7 percentage points from last quarter and 3.1 percentage points compared to this time last year. Further, 70% of patients were transferred from ambulance to emergency departments within 40 minutes – down 9 percentage points compared to this time last year.
While this is positive, ongoing pressures remain across hospitals. There were 3,037 emergency department patients with length of stay greater than 24 hours, up 57.5% on the last quarter. A record high 554,761 patients were discharged from hospital – a 2.1% increase from the last quarter, whilst same-day discharges were also the highest on record at 337,587. The median time to treatment in emergency departments was 15 minutes, up 1 minute from the last quarter.
Victorian Health Association (VHA) CEO Leigh Clarke said that there are positive signs that some of the challenges facing the healthcare system are stabilising.
‘Hospitals are continuing to deliver better or stable performance across many indicators, including transfers from ambulance over to emergency departments, ambulance response times and reductions in the median time to treatment compared to pre-pandemic levels.
‘The performance improvements across planned surgery are to be celebrated. All performance indicators related to the number of patients treated have been exceeded. This is the first time since the pandemic that the number of planned surgery patients treated and the number on the waitlist are roughly the same, potentially indicating a new, stable level of activity in planned surgery.’
Ms Clarke said that these improvements demonstrate the positive impact of Government initiatives that support coordinated planning across the healthcare system.
‘Reforms to the delivery of surgery in Victoria – including the Planned Surgery Reform Blueprint which followed on from the COVID Catch-Up Plan – appear to be seeing some positive results. This includes expansion of access to same-day surgery and the establishment of Patient Support Units to deliver faster assessment and prioritisation of patients on planned surgery preparation lists.’
The Standards for Safe and Timely Ambulance and Emergency Care for Victorians, introduced in early 2025, aim to guide expectations related to paramedic transportation over to hospital and hospital staff, and patients’ experience of emergency department. These have seen some positive early results – including improving handover times between paramedics and emergency staff in some hospitals by more than 10%.
Ms Clarke noted that there were further opportunities to invest in the measures that foster innovation, address barriers to access to care and make best use of acute emergency care.
'The establishment of Local Health Service Networks intends to improve the coordination of healthcare across the system statewide. Shared initiatives across workforce, back-office functions, and quality and safety intend to drive ongoing improvements – this will take time to be fully realised.
‘We are pleased to see the recent release of the Role Delineation Framework which will support clearer definition of the distinct roles and responsibilities of health services and sites across the system. There is an opportunity to expand this over time to reflect all healthcare services that deliver a broader range of services,’ Ms Clarke said.
Ms Clarke noted that while hospitals are continuing to deliver positive improvements, long-term funding across both Victorian and Federal Governments will enable great planning and innovation.
'We're pleased that the Federal Government has increased its share of hospital funding for the current financial year, whilst the Victorian Government has also invested a significant $31 billion into healthcare in the 2025-26 Victorian State Budget.
‘With the next National Health Reform Agreement expected to be finalised by the end of 2025, we look forward to seeing Victoria get its fair share to support multi-year funding that enables long-term planning and innovation,’ Ms Clarke said.
For further information contact
Toli Papadopoulos, Public Affairs Advisor
0408 851 302
Visit our website: www.vha.org.au