SNSWLHD 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 have worked hard to reduce wait times and improve patient experiences," Ms Bennett said.
"Our ED performance continues to score higher than the state average for key indicators including the time to start treatment, the percentage of patients leaving emergency departments within four hours, and the time to transfer of care from ambulance to hospital staff.
"SNSWLHD has implemented a range of improvement strategies to achieve these results including daily huddles across all facilities, ongoing emergency department education programs to strengthen nursing triage protocols, regular reviews of clerical processes and systems and micromanagement of discharges and delays.
"SNSWLHD has also introduced the Virtual Care Generalist Service to support smaller sites to provide more timely and accessible care from July 2023."
From April to June 2023, there were 28,988 attendances to EDs across SNSWLHD.
Almost 8 in 10 patients (79.3 per cent) started treatment on time, which is significantly better than the NSW average (65.8 per cent).
Almost all patients (93.9 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark time, which is also significantly better than the NSW average (74.1 per cent), and a significant improvement (11.3 percentage points) when compared with the same quarter last year.
The majority of patients (75.5 per cent) left the ED within four hours of arriving, which is also better than the NSW average (56.7 per cent). Page 2 of 3.
Of the more than 28,000 presentations to SNSWLHD EDs, 15,945 patients (56.1 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.
SNSWLHD 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 1,291 planned surgeries performed across the District during the second quarter of 2023, with all almost all urgent planned surgery (99.5 per cent) and semi-urgent planned surgery (94.7 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
At Batemans Bay District Hospital there were 3,408 emergency department attendances between April and June 2023. The vast majority of patients (83.7 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.6 per cent). Pleasingly, nearly all patients (96.4 per cent) were transferred from paramedics to the ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark – also better than the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (93.9 per cent). Eight in 10 patients (80 per cent) left the ED within four hours of arriving, which is in line with the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (79 per cent). Batemans Bay District Hospital performed 136 planned surgery procedures during the quarter. All planned surgeries performed during this quarter were in the semi and non-urgent categories and all patients (100 per cent) had their surgery performed on time.
At Moruya District Hospital there were 3,055 emergency department attendances during the April to June 2023 quarter. Of these, more than eight in 10 patients (85.9 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.6 per cent). Almost all patients (96.6 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 136 planned surgeries during the quarter and all (100 per cent) were performed on time.
At Goulburn Base Hospital there were 5,357 emergency department attendances during the quarter. More than eight in 10 patients (83.8 per cent) were transferred Page 3 of 3.
from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark time. During the April to June 2023 quarter, 400 planned surgeries were performed, with almost all urgent planned surgery (98 per cent) performed on time.
At Cooma Hospital there were 2,822 emergency department attendances during the quarter. Almost nine in 10 patients (87.8 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.6 per cent). Almost all patients (99.7 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 (93.9 per cent). The majority of patients (80.3 per cent) left the ED within four hours, which is in line with the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (79 per cent). There were 71 planned surgery procedures performed during the April to June 2023 quarter and all (100 per cent) were performed on time.
At Queanbeyan Hospital there were 6,592 emergency department attendances during the April to June 2023 quarter. More than eight in 10 patients (81 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (78.6 per cent). More than eight in 10 patients (84 per cent) left the ED within four hours – also better than the average for comparable hospitals in NSW (79 per cent). Nearly all patients (97.9 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.
At South East Regional Hospital (SERH) there were 5,305 emergency department attendances during the April to June 2023 quarter. Almost eight in 10 patients (79.3 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (69.8 per cent). More than nine in 10 patients (94.7 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 (85.6 per cent). More than seven in 10 patients (72.8 per cent) left the ED within four hours of arriving – also better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (62.2 per cent). There were 350 planned surgeries performed during the quarter, with all urgent planned procedures (100 per cent) performed on time.