District performs well in latest healthcare quarterly report
The latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) Healthcare Quarterly report (January – March 2023) shows patients in Southern NSW Local Health District (LHD) continued to receive high quality, safe care throughout the first quarter of 2023 despite a high volume of presentations to emergency departments.
Southern NSW LHD Chief Executive, Margaret Bennett, said the district made improvements in a number of key performance indicators.
“Our teams continued to deliver high quality care to our community and the many tourists that visit our region in the warmer months,” Ms Bennett said.
“For the third quarter in a row, we’re seeing small, but important, upward trajectories in those key indicators of ED performance, including the percentage of patients leaving emergency departments within four hours, and the time to transfer of care from ambulance to hospital staff.
“I want to thank each and every one of our staff members for their diligence and dedication, especially those that worked through the summer holiday period.”
- During January to March 2023, there were 29,774 attendances to EDs across SNSWLHD.
- Almost 8 in 10 patients (79.8 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the state average (67.4 per cent).
- The majority of patients (77.2 per cent) left the ED within four hours, which is also better than the NSW average (58.2 per cent).
- Nearly all patients (92.9 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark, also better than the NSW average (77.7 per cent).
- Of the more than 29,000 presentations to SNSWLHD EDs, 16,989 patients (58.2 per cent) were triaged in the semi-urgent (triage 4) and non-urgent (triage 5) categories.
All patients are seen and triaged on arrival at the ED and, as always, the most seriously unwell patients are treated first.
During busy times, those with less urgent conditions will experience longer wait times when there are large numbers of seriously unwell patients being prioritised for emergency care.
Southern NSW LHD continues to remind everyone to support us by saving emergency departments and ambulances for saving lives.
If an illness or injury is not serious or life-threatening, we encourage people to call healthdirect Australia on 1800 022 222, for a 24-hour telephone health advice.
The district continues to work hard to ensure patients requiring planned surgery procedures receive them as soon as possible.
There were 1,200 planned surgeries performed across the district during the first quarter of 2023, with all urgent planned surgery (100 per cent) performed on time and almost all semi-urgent planned surgeries (94.3 per cent) performed on time.
Any patients who feel their condition has deteriorated while waiting for their procedure are encouraged to contact their treating doctor for a clinical review and they can be placed in a higher urgency category if required.
Individual hospital results
| Batemans Bay District Hospital | 3,681 emergency department attendances between January and March 2023. The majority of patients (81.2 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.4 per cent). Pleasingly, nearly all patients (96.1 per cent) were transferred from paramedics to the ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark – also above the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (93.9 per cent). More than 8 in 10 patients (80.1 per cent) left the ED within 4 hours of arriving, which is in line with the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (79.3 per cent). Batemans Bay District Hospital performed 101 planned surgery procedures during the quarter. All planned surgeries performed during this quarter were in the non-urgent category and all patients had their surgery performed on time. |
| Moruya District Hospital | 3,236 emergency department attendances during the January to March 2023 quarter. Of these, more than 9 in 10 patients (81.7 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.4 per cent). More than 9 in 10 patients (94.6 per cent) were transferred from paramedics to the ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark, which is in line with the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (93.9 per cent). Moruya District Hospital performed 227 planned surgeries during the quarter, and all (100 per cent) were performed on time. |
| Goulburn Base Hospital | 5,457 emergency department attendances during the quarter. The majority of patients (68 per cent) started their treatment on time, which is in line with the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (71 per cent). More than 8 in 10 patients were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark time, which is in line with the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (87.1 per cent). During the January to March 2023 quarter, 373 planned surgeries were performed, with all urgent planned surgery (100 per cent) performed on time. |
| Cooma Hospital | 2,841 emergency department attendances during the quarter. More than 9 in 10 patients (90.1 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.4 per cent). Almost all patients (99.3 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark, which is also above the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (93.9 per cent). The majority of patients (81 per cent) left the ED within four hours, which is in line with the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (79.3 per cent). There were 56 planned surgery procedures performed during the January to March 2023 quarter and all (100 per cent) were performed on time. |
| Queanbeyan Hospital | 6,432 emergency department attendances during the January to March 2023 quarter. More than 8 in 10 patients (84.5 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.4 per cent). More than 8 in 10 patients (85.3 per cent) left the ED within four hours – also better than the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (79.3 per cent). Nearly all patients (96.8 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark, also above the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (93.9 per cent). The hospital performed 198 planned surgery procedures during the quarter, with all urgent planned procedures (100 per cent) performed on time. |
| South East Regional Hospital | 5,586 emergency department attendances during the January to March 2023 quarter. More than 7 in 10 patients (75.2 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (71 per cent). More than 9 in 10 patients (92.4 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark, which is also better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (87.1 per cent). More than 7 in 10 patients (72.7 per cent) left the ED within four hours of arriving – also better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (64 per cent). There were 245 planned surgeries performed during the quarter, with all urgent planned procedures (100 per cent) performed on time. |