NSW’s public hospitals have been recognised as the best in the country on their performance in emergency departments (EDs) in 2021-22.
Welcoming the results, the Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard said two Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reports found NSW EDs performed better than any other State or Territory last financial year, and elective surgery performance was second best in the country for treating patients within clinically recommended timeframes.
“While the AIHW reports show the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on timeliness of care throughout the country, the NSW public health system continued to set the benchmark for performance,” Mr Hazzard said.
“When it came to elective surgery performed on time, NSW was only a narrow second to Queensland.”
Deputy Secretary of NSW Health, Matthew Daly said that overall, the AIHW reports showed NSW public hospitals were in a good place to recover from the pandemic impacts.
Professor Daly said this was supported by the latest Bureau of Health Information Healthcare Quarterly report (July – September 2022), also released last week, which showed improvements in key areas for timeliness of care.
He said Quarterly report found the majority of the 744,853 emergency department patients (65.6 per cent) started their treatment on time and 74.8 per cent of patients were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute target.
“NSW Health also continued to make progress on reducing elective surgery wait lists, with 55,493 elective procedures performed in July to September, 1,781 more than in the preceding quarter (April to June),” Prof Daley said.
“Throughout the third quarter of 2022, NSW hospitals performed 55,493 elective surgeries, with almost all urgent elective surgeries (98.9 per cent) performed on time,” he said.
“Public hospitals also performed almost 25,000 emergency surgeries during the quarter, but these critical and generally most complex surgical procedures are not included in the BHI report, thereby greatly under-representing the work done in operating theatres throughout the State,” the Deputy Secretary said.
