Victoria's 'dump day' reports reveal year-long mental health bed waits and missed ambulance targets

The documents were released in the government's annual “dump day”, a practice criticised for reducing scrutiny of unfavourable reports. “Releasing hundreds of reports at once, particularly late on a Friday before a long weekend, acts as a smokescreen and limits accountability,” Moore said.

Ambulance Victoria met its 15-minute response benchmark for critical code 1 emergencies 66 per cent of the time, well below the 85 per cent target but a 4 per cent improvement on the previous year. Only 71 per cent of patients were transferred from ambulances to emergency departments within 40 minutes, against an 80 per cent target. The service said it faced "significant liquidity risk", with seven days of available cash, or $30.9 million, in reserves. Triple Zero Victoria dispatched 80 per cent of code 1 ambulance cases within the 150-second benchmark, short of the 90 per cent target, and said it was regularly managing more than 3000 ambulance calls a day, with "no relief in sight".

Forensicare, which operates Thomas Embling Hospital, reported the longest delays on record for securing a bed for people found not criminally responsible by reason of mental impairment. Nineteen men are awaiting admission, with an average wait of 374 days; one severely unwell man has waited 638 days. The 136-bed hospital is undergoing a $515.7 million expansion to deliver 82 additional secure beds, but funding has so far been provided to begin opening 40 beds this financial year. An average of 16 people a month were recommended for compulsory treatment last year, and only half could be admitted because of capacity constraints.

Staff at the Parkville Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Service reported 634 violent incidents last year, or 135 for every 100 full-time equivalent staff, with violence and aggression accounting for 92 per cent of reported hazards and incidents. The service said the high rate reflected strong staff engagement with reporting processes. "The rate of incident reporting across [Parkville Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Service] during the year reflects strong staff engagement with reporting processes rather than high levels of workplace risk or incidents," it said. The service is permanently relocating its Sunshine services to a new "safe, fit-for-purpose environment" in Spotswood.

On finances, the government has committed $2.75 billion since the May budget to previously unannounced policies over the next four years, against $471 million in identified savings. "That's not what one would reasonably expect of a government which saw putting Victoria's finances on a sustainable footing as a major priority," economist Saul Eslake said. Revenue over the forward estimates has fallen by $5.1 billion, mainly because falling house prices have cut expected stamp duty, and projected annual surpluses have been pared back to as low as $300 million. The Auditor-General warned that blowouts, interest payments and employee costs continued to threaten the government's plan to pay down debt, describing the current fiscal strategy as focused on the short term and saying recent attempts to address debt "do not go far enough".

Elsewhere in the batch, Greater Western Water will receive a $250 million government lifeline if needed over the next year as it reported a $202.5 million operating cash loss, largely driven by revenue lost because of billing issues and the cost of fixing its system. Households on flexible payment plans rose 23 per cent to 35,669, and payment complaints rose 48 per cent. Victorians subsidised the Australian Grand Prix a record $119 million; the event reported $279 million in spending against $159 million in revenue. The Royal Children's Hospital wrote off $9.13 million on an emergency department expansion suspended in March 2023 after its design was deemed “not fit for purpose”. In education, the Department of Education reported 876 reportable allegations, including 307 claims of physical violence, while the new early childhood regulator issued 21 prohibition and suspension actions in its first six months and 29 teachers assessed as posing an unacceptable risk of harm to children were suspended on an interim basis.