Despite having the highest number of people presenting to EDs, 80 per cent of NSW patients were seen on time compared to the national average of 72 per cent.
The findings are just one of a raft of outstanding achievements by NSW hospitals according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report ‘Emergency department care 2017–18, Australian hospital statistics’.
"This is an extraordinary achievement and shows the hard work of our hospital staff is paying off," said Susan Pearce, Deputy Secretary for Purchasing and Performance at NSW Health.
- NSW is the only jurisdiction to meet the target benchmark for all triage categories.
- NSW also leads with the shortest median waiting time for patients starting clinical care in the ED at just 15 minutes, compared to 46 minutes in the ACT.
- Despite increasing demand, 73.5 per cent of patients spent four hours or less in NSW EDs in 2017-18, which is more than the national result of 71.1 per cent.
"Not only are we leading the country in many ED performance measures but we have improved our performance for the people of NSW," said Ms Pearce.
"These results are a testament to the hard work of our dedicated hospital staff and demonstrate NSW Health’s strong focus on the delivery of timely, safe and high- quality care to patients."
In 2018-19 the NSW Government is investing a record $22.9 billion in health, representing a $1.1 billion increase over the 2017-18 Budget, including $19.2 billion towards improving services in hospitals in NSW this year.
An investment of $759 million dollars for acute patient services will fund an additional 40,000 emergency department attendances in addition to 2.9 million already provided, and 3,200 elective surgeries in addition to the 225,500 already provided.
