MLHD Chief Executive, Ms Jill Ludford thanked staff for their hard work throughout the period of high activity.
“Our emergency departments continued to provide care within timeframes well above the state average, and our ambulance transfer of care times are once again among the best in the state for this quarter,” Ms Ludford said.
“We continue to work closely with our colleagues at NSW Ambulance to ensure patients are transferred from ambulance to emergency department as swiftly as possible.
“I want to thank our highly skilled and dedicated workforce. These results are a testament to their hard work.”
Efficient emergency department performance:
Throughout the first quarter of 2023, there were 38,117 attendances to MLHD emergency departments.
More than eight in 10 patients (85%) started treatment on time, which is better than the state average (67.4%).
Almost nine in 10 patients (86.5%) were transferred from paramedics to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark time – also better than the state average (77.7%).
The majority of patients (75.9%) were able to leave the ED within four hours, also better than the state average (58.2%).
Of the more than 35,000 emergency department presentations across the district, 19,556 (54.7%) were in the semi-urgent (triage 4) and non-urgent (triage 5) categories.
MLHD continues to remind the community to support us by saving emergency department and ambulance resources for saving lives. If an illness or injury is not serious or life-threatening, we encourage you to call Healthdirect Australia on 1800 022 222, for a 24-hour telephone health advice.
Actively reducing planned surgery wait times:
MLHD completed 2,101 planned surgeries in the January to March 2023 quarter, up from 1,936 in the preceding October – December 2022 quarter.
All urgent planned surgeries (100%) were performed on time.
MLHD continues its surgical recovery plan, with 41 fewer patients on the waiting list compared with the preceding October – December 2022 quarter, and 123 fewer than at the end of the July – September 2022 quarter.
“As part of the surgical recovery plan we may offer patients the opportunity to receive their surgery sooner at one of our District hospitals,” said Ms Ludford.
“I thank the community for their patience during this challenging time and assure everyone our district is continuing to work hard to carry out those procedures that were postponed during the COVID waves as soon as possible.”
Patients due to receive non-urgent planned surgery who have been impacted by the restrictions are encouraged to seek medical attention should they experience a change in their condition so they can be clinically reviewed and re-prioritised to a more urgent category if required.
The 2022-23 budget for Murrumbidgee Local Health District is $727.9 million, an increase of $29 million or 4.16 per cent on the previous year’s budget.