Hospital ED accused of ‘cooking the books’ to hit government targets
There are 'no financial incentives' to fudging the numbers, says Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas.
A hospital ED is under investigation after clerical staff were accused of doctoring data to hit ambulance ramping targets.
According to media reports, staff at Melbourne’s Northern Hospital have been routinely altering records since 2017 to show patients being offloaded from ambulances within target times.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas says they are “anonymous allegations to date” but that she has ordered the Victorian Department of Health to investigate.
The claims, published in the Herald Sun, are based on screenshots purported to show that offload times were being changed by clerical staff, sometimes a day after initially being made.
