AMA Victoria boss says ‘hundreds’ of concerning hospital experiences are happening every day

The Victorian boss of the Australian Medical Association says “scores” of patients are treated in hospital hallways or tents across the state every day.

It comes after a woman told Neil Mitchell her 83-year-old mother, who has had a stroke, is still in a tent outside Box Hill Hospital more than 17 hours after arriving by ambulance.

Victorian AMA head, Dr Roderick McRae, says that case is “the tip of the iceberg”.

“Sarah’s story, it’s happening scores to hundreds of times every day, and has been doing so for the last eight months,” he told Neil Mitchell.

Dr McRae says “every part of the system is overwhelmed”, and there’s no quick fix.

“We’ve doubled our metropolitan population but we haven’t doubled our bed capacity,” he said.

“You throw a billion dollar note at this and it’s not going to help one iota tonight.

“We need to have a major structural reform of funding of all healthcare.”

Press PLAY below to hear what Dr McRae says must happen to fix the crisis

AMA Victoria boss says ‘hundreds’ of concerning hospital experiences are happening every day