Dubbo Health Service has labelled new statistics on Dubbo Base Hospital waiting times as “fantastic” after recording the greatest improvement from last year in the Western NSW Local Health District.
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The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) Report for the April to June 2014 quarter compares how public hospitals across the state are performing in relation to NSW Ministry of Health benchmarks and targets.
In the report, the most significant improvement for Dubbo Health Service was the reduction in waiting times for patients leaving the Emergency Department (ED).
The latest figures show 71 per cent of 7,168 patients in the last quarter were recorded as leaving the ED within four hours of their arrival, compared to 57 per cent from the same period last year.
The average time between the patients arrive and leaving the ED was two hours and 44 minutes, 45 minutes less than last year.
However, Dubbo had longer waiting times than both Bathurst Base Hospital and Orange Health Service.
For Bathurst, 76 per cent of patients left the ED within four hours, at a mean of 2 hours and 19 minutes, while Orange reported 75 per cent met the deadline, with average ED waiting times slightly longer than Bathurst at 2 hours and 28 minutes.
Dubbo Health Service General Manager Debbie Bickerton said the reduced times are due to a number of changes introduced under the Whole of Hospital program in October last year, which has seen an increase of 11 free beds every day compared to last year.
She said the changes include increased access to emergency surgery by having an all day emergency theatre available, changing the medical roster to have an acute team and a fast-track team and an increase in outpatient procedures.
The statistics are also positive for the 745 patients who underwent elective surgery in the last quarter at Dubbo Health Service.
Overall, 91 per cent of elective surgery patients were treated on time- 100 per cent of urgent patients (eg those with moderate blood loss or dehydration), 95 per cent of semi-urgent patients (eg someone with a sprained ankle or earache) and 85 per cent of non-urgent patients (eg those with small cuts or abrasions).
The median waiting time for urgent surgery was 11 days, 58 days was the average for semi-urgent procedures and 336 was the average for non-urgent surgery
In the Western NSW Local Health District, Cowra District Hospital, Forbes District Hospital and Parkes District Hospital all recorded 100 per cent were treated on time across all areas.
The report found 98 per cent of elective surgery patients in Bathurst were treated on time and 97 per cent of patients in Orange.
Dubbo recorded a drop in overall emergency patients, seven per cent less than the same quarter in 2013, an eight per cent decrease in Triage 1 patients (eg those with critical injuries) and a seven per cent decrease in non-urgent patients.
Ms Bickerton said Dubbo Health Service is working to reduce their waiting times further and to continue to improve their targets.