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Sick suffer while wait grows
AN AVERAGE of 83 seriously ill or injured people each day are stranded on emergency department trolleys for more than 12 hours.

Secret figures obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun show 30,332 Victorians in 2005 waited on trolleys for more than 12 hours before being admitted to wards.
That is nearly three times the 1999 total of 12,603.

The damning statistics were obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The State Government ditched trolley figures from its public statement on hospitals' performance in 2004.

Health experts say the system is at breaking point, with hospitals running at 96-99 per cent occupancy, when they should be at 85 per cent.

Opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey said emergency departments were in meltdown because of Labor Government neglect.

"The Government spends millions of dollars on health advertising and goes to extraordinary lengths to hide the truth about what's happening in our hospitals. It it time they were held to account," she said....