Healthcare quarterly report, issued by Bureau of Health Information

• The Healthcare Quarterly report from THE Bureau of Health Information (BHI).
• Details the performance of public health services in NSW from April to June 2022.
• Patients waited longer for ambulance responses than ever before.

The most recent Healthcare Quarterly report from THE Bureau of Health Information (BHI), which details the performance of public health services in NSW from April to June 2022, has been published.

Patients frequently waited longer for hospital and ambulance services throughout the quarter, according to BHI Acting Chief Executive Hilary Rowell, as activity remained at historically high levels throughout the majority of the system.

Ms Rowell said: “NSW healthcare services continued to experience pressures in April to June, with sustained COVID-19 case numbers and the arrival of the winter flu season.”

In comparison to the same quarter in 2019, there were 375,215 triple zero (000) calls for an ambulance and 333,927 replies, up 21.1 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively.

“Demand for ambulance responses remained high, particularly for patients requiring an emergency (P1) response, and patients waited longer for an ambulance than in any quarter since BHI began reporting in 2010,” said Ms Rowell.

The majority of the 175,892 emergency patient responses took more than 16.3 minutes, which is a record-high since 2010.

Furthermore, the average response time for the 12,134 cases with the highest priority (P1A) was more than 9.1 minutes.

The number of emergency department (ED) visits was 793,987, up 5.2 percent from April to June of last year but falling short of the record high set in April to June of 2021.

The lowest quarter since BHI started reporting in 2010 saw only about six out of ten patients (62.8 percent) arrive for their appointments on time.

The number of patients who left early or without finishing their treatment (76,117) was the highest on record and was up 67.6% from the previous year.

This includes both patients who started treatment but left before it was finished and patients who were triaged but departed the ED before it started.

“Our additional analysis shows that one in five patients who leave without, or before completing treatment, tend to re-present to an ED within three days,” Ms Rowell said.

72.5 percent of patients who arrived at an ED via ambulance had their care transferred to ED personnel in less than 30 minutes.

From April to June 2022, 53,712 elective procedures were carried out.

Ms Rowell said, “Fewer elective surgeries were performed than the historically high numbers a year earlier, but activity was up 41.1 percent (15,649) compared with January to March 2022, when non-urgent surgery was suspended for a period of time.”

Half of those patients had to wait more than 339 days for non-urgent surgery, and waiting times have continued to rise.

At the end of June, there were 98,625 patients on the waiting list, which is a decrease of 2.3% (2,286) from the end of March.

The number of patients who had delayed elective surgery beyond what was clinically necessary rose to 18,748 at the end of the quarter, the largest quarterly total since BHI started keeping track in 2010.

According to Kate Washington, a Port Stephens councilwoman, “Our neighbourhood hospitals are in crisis.

“Every day, I’m hearing from people in Port Stephens who are not receiving the healthcare they deserve in their time of need.

“More of our residents are being sent by ambulance to the new Maitland Hospital, and the situation there is rapidly deteriorating.

“It’s a shocking fact, that one in four people are leaving the emergency department before they’re even seen by a doctor, because the wait times are so long.

“Tomaree Community Hospital is so neglected by the NSW Liberal government that it’s not capable of meeting the community’s healthcare needs.

“Our hard working nurses, doctors and health staff are doing everything they can, but they’re so understaffed and overworked, the pressure they’re under is putting lives at risk.

“Our local nurses have been desperately crying out for help for months.

“They’ve seen this situation coming because they’re living it every day. It’s shameful that the NSW Liberal Government has refused to act,” she said.

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