THE majority of a jump in attendances to emergency at Dubbo Hospital was due to people presenting for COVID-19 testing.
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There was a 323.1 per cent increase in the number of non-urgent cases (triage category five) compared to the same quarter in 2019, up from 4469 people to 5852, according to the latest Bureau of Health Information report which looks at data for the period of July to September 2020.
Overall the report shows Dubbo Hospital experienced a 39.5 per cent increase in the number of emergency department attendances, up from 3,882 people to 13,719 people compared with the previous year's July to September quarter.
Western NSW Local Health District Acting Chief Executive Mark Spittal said 60,251 patients presented to emergency departments across the district during July and September, which was an increase of 20.2 per cent compared with the same time last year.
Mr Spittal said the district saw a particular rise in non-urgent activity through the ED, up 87.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, mostly due to people presenting for COVID-19 testing.
We are immensely proud of our workforce during this extraordinary and tremendously challenging period.
- Western NSW Local Health District Acting Chief Executive Mark Spittal
"Despite this increase, emergency presentations starting treatment on time increased by 10.5 per cent to 88.6 per cent for the district," he said.
"It's also pleasing that the number of patients leaving the emergency department within four hours improved by 6.7 percentage points, up to 85.2 per cent."
Dubbo Hospital also saw 1126 elective surgeries performed in the period, an increase of 102 people, or 10 per cent compared to 2019.
The number of elective surgical procedures jumped across NSW, with more performed in the July to September 2020 quarter than in any other quarter in the past five years.
Patients are likely to have waited longer for elective surgeries this year, as a result of lockdowns and restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are immensely proud of our workforce during this extraordinary and tremendously challenging period," Mr Spittal said.
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