Vic to spend $759m to fix health crisis

The package, part of the May 20 state budget, was unveiled by Health Minister Martin Foley on Friday.

He said the state's health system has been dealing with challenges - "the likes of which it's never had to deal with before" - since emerging from a prolonged coronavirus lockdown late last year.

"We've seen just in the quarter gone, the highest level of demand in our public health services' history," Mr Foley told reporters.

Between July-September 2020 and January-March 2021, the volume of emergency department presentations increased by 30 per cent.

Mr Foley said some people with COVID-19 symptoms are not attending their GPs, as many require a negative test in order to make an appointment.

Instead, they are heading straight to the emergency department, which is becoming more of a concern as flu season begins.

Fewer GPs are also visiting residential aged care facilities, with workers relying on Ambulance Victoria instead.

In the last quarter alone, more than 36,000 people called triple zero despite not needing an emergency ambulance, and were instead connected to more appropriate primary care services.

"There's been a perfect storm of matters that come together on the back of switching the system back on after the COVID pandemic that's seen unprecedented levels of demand, which has therefore demanded unprecedented levels of response from the government," Mr Foley said.

He said the funds will help deliver more paramedics and nurses as well as free up space in the state's emergency departments from next month.

The package includes $266 million to expand Ambulance Victoria's triage services and $204.3 million to bolster its resources through programs such as telehealth.

About $200 million will go towards opening new hospital facilities and creating new beds, while $89 million will help boost capacity and support flow through emergency departments.

Professor Christine Kirkpatrick from the Royal Melbourne Hospital said many people are turning up at emergency departments sicker, as they deferred their normal check-ups during lockdown.

"We're seeing this play out in the length of stay of patients, particularly those who come through our emergency department, and other hospitals are seeing the same increase in length of stay," she told reporters.

In addition, Prof Kilpatrick said staff were "understandably tired" and many were on sick leave after the hospital became the epicentre of the state's second wave of COVID-19.

"All of these factors are playing into a more complex situation," she said.

Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker said the latest performance data would be the service's worst in some time.

"I don't expect that it's going to get better straight away. I expect that it will most likely get worse before it gets better, especially coming into winter," he said.

Mr Walker said nobody could have predicted the impact that lockdown would have on the health system.

"We're the first country really to be coming out of the pandemic," he said.

Mr Foley has been under pressure all week from the state opposition, who have described the situation as a "crisis".

A fortnight ago, 32-year-old Christina Lackmann died at her home in Caulfield, 12 kilometres southeast of Melbourne's CBD, while waiting six hours for an ambulance.

"She called triple zero and was left there for nearly seven hours. Now it's not a third world country, not even an outer suburb, this is Caulfield," Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien told question time on Tuesday.

"A 32-year-old woman died waiting for an ambulance in Victoria, in 2021."

Health department figures show an increase in ambulance response times in the January-March quarter this year.

The 90th percentile response time - the time within 90 per cent of responses being completed - was up for life-threatening incidents, high priority/time critical incidents and "lights and sirens" ambulance dispatches.

Ambulance response times source: Victorian Agency for Health Information website

Australian Associated Press