NSW hospitals have seen modest but promising progress in emergency department (ED) wait times, with the Health Minister Ryan Park saying there's more room for improvement.

The latest Bureau of Health Information Healthcare Quarterly report shows the majority of patients (68.3 per cent) started their ED treatment on time and almost 80 per cent (79.9 per cent) of patients who arrived by ambulance had their care transferred to ED staff within 30 minutes, both measures reflecting small improvements compared with the same quarter in 2022.

ED activity continued to remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, with 798,813 ED attendances including a record 6,649 triage 1 (resuscitation) and 119,389 triage 2 (emergency) presentations during the last quarter of 2023.

NSW hospitals have also significantly reduced the number of people whose planned surgery is overdue, reducing the overdue planned surgical waitlist by almost 90 per cent in one year.

Public hospitals performed 59,422 planned surgeries in the October to December quarter in 2023, 5,099 more procedures than in the October to December 2022 quarter.

Overall, 83.6 per cent of all planned surgeries were performed on time in NSW public hospitals during the October to December quarter in 2023, an increase of seven percentage points compared with the same quarter in 2022. Almost every urgent planned procedure (99.5 per cent) was performed on time.

The NSW Government's Surgical Care Governance Taskforce has helped to drastically reduce the number of patients exceeding the clinically recommended timeframe for planned surgery by 87.5 per cent, from 17,070 in December 2022 to 2,133 in December 2023.

The NSW Government is working to improve access to care and reducing wait times, including through:

• establishing an emergency department taskforce – to safely find innovative strategies to treat patients more effectively;
• boosting staff – making 1,112 temporary nurses permanent and recruiting an additional 1,200 nurses and midwives;
• boosting infrastructure – working to deliver 600 more treatment spaces in Western Sydney;
• embracing Healthdirect and the single patient front door – connecting more patients to care options outside the hospital; and
• rolling out 25 urgent care services across the state relieving pressure on our EDs.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Health Ryan Park:

“Everyone should be able to access quality health care when they need it, where they need it. Patients shouldn't have to wait hours longer than necessary in our hospitals or emergency departments. Having people and their loved ones waiting around in our hospitals for lengthy periods of time is not good for them, our staff, or other patients.

“I want to make it very clear – we are far from mission accomplished. While this is a promising improvement, too many people are still waiting too long in our EDs.

“We are throwing everything in our rucksack at improving access and reducing wait times in our hospitals.

“This includes boosting staff and infrastructure; but also rolling out urgent care and providing those alternate pathways to care, to treat people outside the hospital; and establishing an ED taskforce to drive improvements in wait times and access to care.

“When we reduce the proportion of people who can be treated outside of hospitals entering our EDs, our patients as a whole benefit."