BHI Chief Executive, Dr Jean-Frederic Levesque, said the volume of services that NSW public hospitals provided during the quarter had increased.
"Compared to the same time in 2013 hospitals reported two per cent more hospital admissions and three per cent more patients visiting the emergency department, although elective surgery numbers are stable," Dr Levesque said.
More than 636,000 people visited emergency departments in NSW during October to December:
- The total time patients spent in the emergency department was the shortest recorded for any October to December quarter over the past five years
- The median waiting times to treatment for people presenting at NSW emergency departments were the same or shorter across all urgency categories compared to the same quarter the previous year
- For patients who arrived by ambulance, 86 per cent had their care transferred from ambulance to emergency department staff within 30 minutes, one percentage point less than the same quarter the previous year.
"Despite more patients visiting emergency departments, the report shows patients are spending less time in the emergency department overall.
"Across NSW, 73 per cent of patients left emergency departments within four hours, an improvement of two percentage points compared to the same quarter the previous year," Dr Levesque said.
There were more than 54,000 elective surgeries performed, which is largely unchanged from the same quarter the previous year.
Across NSW:
- 100 per cent of urgent elective surgery was performed on time
- 97 per cent of semi-urgent surgery was performed on time
- 96 per cent of non-urgent surgery was performed on time.
"The report shows that overall NSW continues to provide 97 per cent of elective surgery on time, which is a stable result for the past seven quarters," Dr Levesque said.
