THE Brumby Government is under pressure to pour more money into Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) which has been identified as the third busiest hospital in country Victoria.

A government report has identified that LRH treated more emergency patients between July and December 2007 than the previous year while patients admitted to the hospital during that time were up by 11 per cent.

Nationals MLA for Morwell, Russell Northe said the report confirmed LRH was being swamped.

``No doubt the reason for the additional demand placed upon the health services, more so at LRH, is because of the increase in the area's population, particularly in Traralgon,'' he said.

``I think while the demand has grown for the health services over time, I don't think the local hospital has grown and been adequately resourced with demand over time.''

The Your Hospitals report states the LRH Emergency Department (ED) treated 14,102 patients in the six months to the end of December 2007, an increase of 403 patients on the previous year.

According to the report, every Category 1 patient (those requiring resuscitation) were treated on arrival at the ED and 90 per cent of Category 2 patients (general emergencies) were treated within 10 minutes.

However only half of the emergency patients were admitted to a hospital bed within eight hours.

The figures were compiled at a time when the ED was known to be under pressure.

Two months ago Health Minister Daniel Andrews opened a state-funded six bed, short stay unit at LRH to ease overcrowding and free up cubicles.

At the opening, Mr Andrews acknowledged the ED was ``very busy'' and the new unit would not address all of its problems.

Mr Northe however, said longer term solutions were needed.

``LRH can only work within the budget presented to them by the State Government, I think they (the government) need to do more in assisting local hospitals in terms of investing in funding and resources,'' he said

``I think the ED was supposed to cater for about 10,000 patients and we're seeing something around 26,000 presentations per annum which indicates the amount of stress on the ED.

``I know LRH are looking at assisting the ED and alleviating their stress by opening up more beds but there are still concerns about how LRH will be able to cope in the long run.''

The concerns are buoyed by figures which show LRH to be one of the busiest hospitals in country Victoria. It admitted 14,278 patients between July and December last year, an increase of 1440 on the previous year.

The only other country hospitals with higher admissions were Barwon Health and Ballarat Health Service Group.

Mr Andrews said it was a difficult six month period for all hospitals which had coped with a severe winter flu season, a spike in winter gastroenteritis and industrial action by nurses.

Mr Northe said there was only so much hospital staff could take and there should be more concern for their wellbeing, or LRH could find itself short on qualified practitioners.

``The statistics are evidence enough that there are increasing demands on the health care workers,'' he said.

``The State Government must provide additional resources to LRH as a matter of priority.''

The Your Hospitals report indicated waiting times for elective surgery at LRH fell within the state benchmarks.

Mr Andrews said $1.81 billion allocated to health in the State Budget would deliver more funding for elective surgery, outpatient appointments, emergency departments and ambulance services.

LRH chief executive officer Mark Sullivan was unavailable to speak with The Express yesterday and therefore unable to clarify the figures outlined in the Your Hospitals report.