'Huge expansion': Hospital grows medical workforce by 200, adds services

Chief executive officer Craig Fraser said the growth was geared towards making Warrnambool a regional medical hub.

"The net change of actual numbers is probably about a 200 increase in staff. We've had 375 new staff members start: 15 new specialists and 70 rotational doctors," Mr Fraser said.

"What all that means is there's a broader service provision within the south-west that fits with model public healthcare.

"Unfortunately some people have chosen to leave, which is always the case, but it's actually a good news story for us given the recruitment challenges in Australia at the moment."

Mr Fraser said the health service had also taken a huge step towards expanding its range of highly trained specialist doctors by winning accreditation from seven Australian medical colleges.

The service was reaccredited by the colleges of surgeons, physicians, paediatrics and orthopaedics, as well as getting new accreditation for advanced training in general medicine, basic training in paediatrics, standalone training in anaesthetics, and training in plastic surgery.

The accreditations mean SWH can bring advanced trainees, known as registrars, into the hospital from around Australia and in some cases from overseas. Mr Fraser said it would greatly expand the number of expert doctors available at the Warrnambool Base Hospital and beyond.

"It's critical to support the senior specialists that we have in the organisation because these registrars that come in through the college programs are accredited registrars," he said.

"That means they're on a pathway to become specialists in that field, so they can assist the surgeons, the medical physicians, the paediatricians, the ED doctors, to actually deliver care. And because they are on that pathway they themselves have a unique skill set to do that."

He said SWH was one of only a couple of regional hospitals in Australia to have achieved accreditation for plastic surgery.

"It was great to get the plastics accreditation for our team, which Rob Toma and our medical workforce led heavily. It's a real resource for the organisation," he said.

"It also exposes future specialists to our region and to South West Healthcare, so we're hoping it will help us recruit and retain into the future."

The extra medical staff have helped SWH keep up with the growing demand for healthcare in the region. The number of people being treated at the health service grew on every metric, with inpatient numbers surging past 25,000 and surgeries pushing past 7500.

Warrnambool Base Hospital was also able to bring down average wait times from 5.9 hours to 4.4 hours in its emergency department despite demand growing steadily.

"We've done a lot in our ED both in the patient-facing space, but also the staff space, so they can see everyone's individual wait times and what the delays are," Mr Fraser said.

"It's a really good story because the team are really invested in not only improving the wait times but improving the experience people have when they come to ED.

"I also have to take my hat off to the primary care clinic, which has made a huge difference to the lower triage categories, because they've been able to deal with them. So that has made an enormous difference to the provision of healthcare in Warrnambool."

But while the number of overnight hospital stays grew, the number of people being treated as outpatients spiked even further, due largely to SWH opening several new specialist clinics.

"This year our outpatient clinics saw 10,000 patients," Mr Fraser said. "That included existing clinics like our women's outpatient clinic, our orthpaedics and paediatrics and a few others.

"But we've been working with our local specialists and newly recruited specialists to expand that into a heart failure clinic, geriatric clinic, gastroenterology, our neurology clinic, haematology, endocrinology, renal and diabetes clinic, as well as rheumatology."

Mr Fraser said the steady expansion of services would mean more local people could find the care they needed locally.

"We are hoping this decreases the need for people to travel to Melbourne," he said.