The number of people seeking treatment at Ballarat Health Service's emergency department has surged 25 per cent over the past few weeks.
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But many of those are non-urgent cases that could be managed through a GP clinic or other health service.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the number of people presenting at the ED dropped from its usual level of about 160 a day, to around 110, with a particular drop in less acute or complex illness and injuries like nausea, vomiting and sprains.
But it has since leapt back to normal levels with much of the increase being more minor cases.
BHS director of acute operations Ben Kelly said since coronavirus restrictions had eased the ED had seen "an influx of patients present with non emergency or non acute illnesses and injury".
"We would never turn anyone away but there's a contingent of the community that knowingly come to the emergency department in the hope of receiving free, quick health care - even calling an ambulance in the hope of not having to wait," he said.
"No matter how many people in emergency, we triage them and the sickest people are treated first which can lead to long waits depending on assessment."
A new report reveals about one in six Ballarat people are presenting to emergency departments for lower urgency care.
During 2018-2019, 17,874 people from Ballarat visited a hospital emergency department for treatment of a condition of lower urgency that could have been dealt with at a GP clinic according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.
Its findings showed people who live in regional health areas tended to go to the emergency department more for lower urgency care (16.4 per cent of presentations) compared to metropolitan (nine per cent).
More than a third of cases seen in emergency departments across Australia required semi and non-urgent care, most of which could have been managed by general practitioners or community health services.
Compared to Ballarat, Bendigo has a similar rate of people presenting to emergency for low-urgent care while in Geelong, the rate is about 10 per cent.
"Ballarat is one of the emergency departments with the highest growth in the state, coupled with being a regional ED not like a metropolitan hospital where there's another option a couple of suburbs away," Mr Kelly said.
Mr Kelly said people with non-urgent illness or injury could take advantage of other resources such as nurse on call, their local GP or after hours medical clinic, or after hours nurse, talk to their pharmacist or the COVID-19 digital health channel.
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AIHW spokesman Michael Frost said not all lower urgency patients could be treated in a primary health setting, like a doctors clinic, depending on pre-existing health conditions and hospital resources.
Mr Frost said understanding how and when people use emergency departments could help improve decision-making, service planning, and care coordination.
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