AN ADDITIONAL 21,000 patients attended the state’s emergency departments (EDs) in the July-September quarter compared with the same period last year, according to the Bureau of Health Information (BHI)’s quarterly report.
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Almost 650,000 patients attended NSW emergency departments from July to September, but Dubbo Base Hospital saw no increase.
The time patients waited to start treatment in Dubbo’s ED increased at almost every triage level when compared with figures from the same quarter last year.
Half of urgent patients waited 27 minutes to start treatment at Dubbo’s ED, up from 23 minutes last year, while half of semi-urgent patients were seen within 38 minutes, up from 27 minutes.
Non-urgent patients were also waiting longer, with half of them starting treatment within 31 minutes of presenting at the ED compared with a 25 minute wait in 2014.
Waiting times remained level for emergency patients, with half of them seen within nine minutes.
Further west there were some improvements, with Broken Hill’s emergency department reducing waiting times across all triage levels.
Half of emergency patients at Broken Hill were seen within nine minutes, down from 12 in 2014, while half of all urgent patients waited 18 minutes to be start treatment (a seven minute improvement). The wait for half of semi-urgent patients dropped from 37 minutes to 25, and half of non-urgent patients were seen within 26 minutes, down from 41 minutes in 2014.
