Western NSW public hospitals maintain performance through busy first quarter of 2025

WNSWLHD Acting Chief Executive Josh Carey praised the district’s dedicated workforce for their unwavering commitment to providing safe, timely and high-quality care to patients across the community. 

“The latest BHI Quarterly Report shows we have continued to maintain our strong performance during another busy, challenging quarter. That performance is the direct result of our workforce’s effort and dedication,” Mr Carey said.

“Our staff are incredibly committed to their communities, and I want to thank them for continuing to provide outstanding care, and making sure our people can get the care they need when and where they need it.

“These reports show us where we are performing strongly, but also where we can improve and we’re committed to continued improvement, to ensure our communities can continue to get the best possible care.”

During the first quarter of 2025 there were 50,890 attendances to the district’s Emergency Departments (EDs), including a high volume of patients presenting in the most urgent triage categories. 

From January to March 2025 there were 5,601 patients who presented to our EDs with an imminently life-threatening condition (triage category 2), an increase of 361 presentations or 6.9 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2024. 

This was also just five fewer patients than the record number of emergency presentations (triage category 2) recorded in the October to December 2024 quarter immediately preceding this report (5,606).

Similarly, the number of patients presenting to our EDs with an urgent (triage category 3) condition was 15,142. This marked an increase of 506 presentations or 3.5 per cent, compared to the same quarter in the previous year. 

Despite this increased demand in the highest 3 triage categories, almost eight in 10 patients (79.4 per cent) started their treatment on time which is significantly better than the NSW average (67 per cent). Across all triage categories, the percentage of patients starting treatment on time was better than the state average.

Similarly, despite these increases in presentation of the most urgent triage categories, the vast majority of patients who arrived by ambulance (87.7 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark, an improvement of 6.4 percentage points from the same quarter of 2024.

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, people with less urgent conditions can experience longer wait times when there are large numbers of seriously unwell patients being prioritised for emergency care. 

NSW Health has worked with the Australian College of Emergency Medicine to introduce new Hospital Access Targets for local health districts and specialty health networks relating to the time from arrival to leaving the emergency department.  These new targets are designed to support safe patient care and reflect the complexity of patient needs and the diverse pathways patients may take once they present to an ED. 

This is the first Healthcare Quarterly report to reflect the new targets. Due to the change in reporting, the results for the new Hospital Access Targets cannot be compared to the previous January – March 2024 quarter.

The BHI Healthcare Quarterly report shows that 74.1 per cent of patients who presented to Western NSW EDs and did not require admission or transfer to another hospital, were discharged within four hours, which is above the state average of 66.7 per cent.

The District continues to work incredibly hard to ensure patients requiring planned surgery receive their procedures as soon as possible. There were 2,628 planned surgeries performed across the District during the January to March 2025 quarter.

More than three quarters of patients (75.9 per cent) had their planned surgery on time and almost all urgent planned surgeries (97.6 per cent) were performed on time.

The District reminds the community that free health advice is available 24/7 by calling Healthdirect on 1800 022 222. A nurse will answer your call, ask some questions and connect you with the right care. 

There were 818 babies born in Western NSW Local Health District during the first quarter of 2025.

More information and data related to individual hospitals across the District can be found on the BHI website.