Patients at public hospitals across NSW continue to receive excellent care, despite record numbers of people presenting to emergency departments.

The BHI Hospital Quarterly, April to June 2018, showed emergency department and elective surgery performance remained at a high level in the face of increasing demand.

NSW Health Executive Director Ray Messom said more than three-quarters (76.6 per cent) of NSW patients were being seen within clinically recommended timeframes, despite an increase of 8,562 presentations.

“The percentage of patients who spent four hours or less in the ED also improved to almost three-quarters (74 per cent).

“Over 157,000 patients arrived by ambulance to an emergency department in the April to June quarter and, of these, nearly 92 per cent were transferred from paramedics to hospital clinicians within 30 minutes.”

Mr Messom said for the second quarter in a row, Western Sydney public hospitals in particular showed significant improvements in performance.

“Despite 47,300 people presenting to Western Sydney emergency departments this quarter, an increase of 1,731 patients, once again Blacktown, Westmead, and Mount Druitt improvements were outstanding,” Mr Messom said.

Overall, 97 per cent of elective surgical procedures were performed within clinically recommended timeframes, with 1295 more elective surgeries performed when compared with the same quarter the previous year.

In 2018-19, the NSW Government is investing a record $22.9 billion in health, representing a $1.1 billion increase over the 2017-18 Budget.

This includes $19.2 billion towards improving services in hospitals in NSW this year.

An investment of $759 million for acute patient services will fund an additional 40,000 emergency department attendances in addition to 2.9 million already provided and an extra 3,200 elective surgeries in addition to the 225,500 already provided.

The NSW Government’s record $1 billion 2018-19 NSW Ambulance budget includes a commitment to provide an additional 700 paramedics and 50 Triple Zero control centre staff over the next four years.

The 2018-19 Budget also added 1,370 health staff, including 950 nurses and midwives,

300 medical practitioners and 120 allied health professionals – resulting in a record frontline clinical and clinical support staff of over 105,000.