Wimmera Health Care Group acting chief executive Mark Knights said the emergency department treated 3785 patients in the three months to the end of December, up from 3285 in the previous quarter. 

“The increase has something to do with the level of bugs around this year,” he said.

“We had a strong flu and gastro season, also a number of general practitioners left private clinics in Horsham and we certainly noticed an impact.

“Less acute patients are often presenting with things general practitioners would look after.” 

Mr Knights said the shortage was a short-term problem, with recruitment underway for various positions.

He said people should avoid going to the emergency department if they had a medical issue that a general practitioner could deal with instead. “That way the emergency department can deal with emergency situations,” he said.

Mr Knights said he was proud the emergency department treated 100 per cent of category one patients immediately and 91 per cent of category two patients within 10 minutes, beating the state average of 80 per cent. 

“It’s great. We’ve worked very hard to reach targets,” Mr Knights said.

“It’s a real credit to our nursing and medical staff across the whole organisation.

“Over about two years we’ve had a full redesign of our patient flow program through the organisation.

“We’ve also introduced a discharge lounge so patients ready for discharge but waiting for medication or to be picked up can be moved into the lounge, which frees up beds for people coming through.”

Mr Knights said the redesign would continue.

He said the hospital received $133,000 in state government support last year to remodel the emergency department.