Figures from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI)’s quarterly report revealed 743 patients underwent elective surgery between January and March 2017 – 14 fewer than in January-March last year – with surgery waiting times falling significantly in three of the six major specialties.

Patients waited 34 days less for orthopaedic surgery, 24 days less for ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery, and 21 days less in ophthalmology.

Median waiting times increased for those undergoing general surgery (one day longer), gynaecology (10 days longer) and urology (one day longer).

Ms Bickerton said the opening of a fifth operating theatre was responsible for the reduced waiting times.

“That’s just a whole good news story,” she said.

“We’re getting more patients through with shorter days wait, and of course we’re meeting our elective surgery targets.”

The BHI figures revealed 100 per cent of urgent patients received surgery within the clinically recommended time frame of 30 days, up from just 98.9 per cent in the same period last year. 98.9 per cent of semi-urgent patients received surgery within 60 days, while 96.8 per cent of non-urgent patients received surgery within 365 days.

Dubbo hospital performed better than the average for similar hospitals.

“It’s not always easy but it’s very pleasing to know that, not only can we maintain our great performance with the additional activity that’s coming through our doors, but while we’ve also got a major development on,” Ms Bickerton said.

“We’ve got the most amazing group of staff here, they’re dedicated … sometimes it amazes me that they keep coming back.

“Nursing these days is … a physically demanding job so it’s amazing that these people keep coming back. We’ve got team upon team of really good people, which shows in our results because you can’t get results like this unless you’ve got really hard-working people who care about their patients.”