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.