The NSW Government is pursuing its own strategy to address the Commonwealth Government's bed block of NSW hospitals - with almost 1,300 beds now occupied by community members waiting on Commonwealth Government funding for either an aged care or NDIS placement.
Bed block nears 1,300
Between 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2026 the number of stranded patients surged in NSW hospitals from 871 to 1,276.
- Older patients waiting for an aged care placement increased from 597 to 948.
- Patients waiting for an NDIS placement increased from 274 to 328.
During this period, the number of stranded patients in South Western Sydney Local Health District grew from 100 to 196, including at:
- Bankstown Hospital - from 13 to 28
- Campbelltown Hospital - from 30 to 44
- Liverpool Hospital - from 25 to 45
The number of stranded patients in Western Sydney Local Health District grew from 90 to 163, including at:
- Blacktown Hospital - from 15 to 20
- Westmead Hospital - from 54 to 63
The number of stranded patients in Sydney Local Health District grew from 70 to 121, including at RPA - from 17 to 37.
Stranded patients strategy
The NSW Government is pursuing its own strategy to address the Commonwealth Government's bed block of NSW hospitals.
The strategy involves:
- NSW expanding aged care outreach services to deliver short-term multidisciplinary care to older people in their own home to reduce avoidable hospitalisations
- Strengthening hospital in the home services to support more older people;
- Triaging and referring patients to community-based services; and
- Strengthening discharge planning for complex patients to ensure they get the support they need outside of hospital.
Hospital performance
Despite these challenges, there have been some improvements in emergency department performance, planned surgery and the number of people accessing care outside of the hospital.
The proportion of triage category two patients with life threatening conditions being treated on time increased in the January to March 2026 quarter compared to three years ago. Triage category two patients are some of the most unwell patients presenting to emergency departments, and the benchmark time for treatment to be commenced for these patients is 10 minutes.
There was particular improvement in Western Sydney - the proportion of triage category two patients treated on time increasing by almost a half compared to three years ago (from 29.2 per cent to 42.6 per cent).
There was also significant improvement in South Western Sydney - the proportion of triage category two patients treated on time increasing by almost a third compared to three years ago (from 46.9 percent to 61.3 per cent).
Notable hospitals which have improved the proportion of triage category two patients treated on time compared to three years ago include:
- Blacktown - 16.5 percent to 41.1
- Mt Druitt - 20 percent to 50.9
- Campbelltown - 33.1 percent to 69.1
- Liverpool - 44.2 percent to 63.9
- St George - 28 percent to 38.8
- Canterbury - 34.8 percent to 44.3
The proportion of patients arriving by ambulance being transferred to ED staff within 30 minutes (ramping) also increased in the January to March 2026 quarter compared to three years ago. Notable hospitals which have improved ramping compared to three years ago include:
- Blacktown - 68.1 percent to 75.3
- Campbelltown - 61.7 percent to 73.1
- Liverpool - 58.8 percent to 68.1
- Bankstown-Lidcombe - 78 percent to 86.3
- Fairfield - 83.9 percent to 94.7
This coincides with an increased uptake of alternative pathways to care outside of the hospital, including Healthdirect, the expansion of virtual care services across NSW with $224m invested for urgent care services; half a billion dollars invested into ED relief; the recruitment of more health workers and the delivery of more hospital beds with 600 across Western Sydney.
These measures are proving to be a significant success with the BHI data showing the number of semi-urgent and non-urgent patients presenting to EDs decreased significantly by over 23,000 in the January March 2026 quarter when compared to the same quarter three years earlier under the Coalition (354,712 compared to 331,573 patients).
The number of overdue surgeries has decreased from 14,000 to 3,955 in the January - March 2026 quarter compared to the same quarter three years earlier. This is despite sustained high demand across the system with 6.4% more planned surgeries performed than in the same quarter last year. It coincides with over $200 million in investment to undertake more surgeries to clear the backlog.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Health Ryan Park:
"Every day, 1,300 patients are unable to leave our hospitals because they are waiting for a Commonwealth aged care or NDIS placement.
"The NSW Government is effectively subsidising the Commonwealth in its duty to provide aged care places.
"The growth in the number of stranded Commonwealth aged care patients in our health system is unsustainable, and the Commonwealth has left the NSW Government with no choice but to devise its own plan.
"While the NSW Government is pursuing its own plan to address bed block, this is by no means a signal to the Commonwealth that they are relieved of their responsibility to deliver aged care placements.
"Despite these challenges, we are continuing to see progress in emergency department and surgery wait times which has coincided with a significant investment from the Minns Labor Government into ED relief - and I want to thank our health workers for their hard work and commitment to our health system."
