NSW hospitals have reported their strongest performance in a winter quarter, with 71.5% of patients spending four hours or less in emergency departments.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the four-hour measure was 1.4 percentage points higher than the same period last year - a great improvement, given the high number of patient presentations during the season. The Bureau of Health Information’s Hospital Quarterly report shows 652,749 people presented to NSW hospital emergency departments from July to September 2016.
“The report reflects the tremendous work being done across the state by our dedicated hospital staff. While there is always room for improvement, many of our hospitals have shown wonderful progress in the winter months,” Mrs Skinner said.
The state’s biggest improvements (more than 5%) were: Westmead, Batemans Bay, Hornsby, Campbelltown, Queanbeyan, Concord, Wagga Wagga and John Hunter hospitals. Notably, Tamworth Hospital boosted its performance by 12.3 percentage points, to 76.6%. The report cards for South East Regional and Shellharbour hospitals indicate room for improvement.
Nearly 90% of patients taken to hospital by ambulance were transferred within 30 minutes - a seven percentage point increase on the same quarter last year. Median transfer time reduced by two minutes, to 12 minutes.
The BHI data also shows 97.9% of patients received elective surgery within clinically recommended timeframes, the highest result reported in the past five years. Of particular note was a 1.8 percentage point increase in on-time non-urgent elective surgery, up to 96.9% of patients.
For further information visit the Bureau of Health Information.