Dubbo Hospital ED 'attendances' rise by almost 3000 as surgeons tackle long list

The Bureau of Health Information's latest Healthcare Quarterly report for October to December 2020 reveals increased activity at the hospital compared with the same period in 2019.

In the 2020 quarter the ED counted a staggering 12,773 attendances, up 2977 and 30.4 per cent on the same period in 2019.

Non-urgent cases rose from 2825 in the 2019 quarter to 4191 in the 2020 quarter, a whopping increase of 206.8 per cent.

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Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan reports of 59,004 ED attendances across the district, an increase of 16.6 per cent or 8389 people.

"WNSWLHD saw a particular rise in non-urgent activity through emergency departments, up 47 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, mostly due to people presenting for COVID-19 testing," he said.

"Despite this increase, emergency presentations starting treatment on time improved by 4.8 percentage points to 85 per cent for the district.

"It is also pleasing that the number of patients leaving the emergency department within four hours improved by 2.8 percentage points up to 82.3 per cent.

"We are immensely proud of our workforce during this extraordinary and tremendously challenging period."

The percentage of patients who received treatment on time at Dubbo Hospital's ED was 84.3, up 18.7 per cent on the same period in 2019.

In the non-urgent category, 97.9 per cent of patients were treated on time, up 10.1 per cent on the 2019 quarter.

Bureau data shows 79.5 per cent of Dubbo Hospital ED patients left within four hours, up 8.1 per cent on the 2019 quarter.

Meanwhile,1077 elective surgeries were performed at Dubbo Hospital in the 2020 quarter, up 94 or 9.6 per cent on the 2019 quarter.

Non-urgent surgeries increased to 516, up 86 or 20 per cent on the 2019 quarter.

There were 2257 patients ready for surgery at Dubbo Hospital at the end of the 2020 quarter, including 1989 non-urgent cases.

In March the National Cabinet paused all non-urgent and most semi-urgent elective surgery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The health district says the state government is spending $458.5 million fast-tracking elective surgeries.

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