07 May 2008

NSW hospitals performing above national benchmarks

NSW Minister for Health Reba Meagher said today that the state's hospitals are treating people more quickly despite an ongoing rise in emergency department activity.

"The NSW health system has maintained overall performance improvement despite continuous increases in emergency department attendances," Ms Meagher said.

Figures have improved across a range of areas:

• More than 170,000 people went to an emergency department during March - an increase of 2.9 per cent on the same time last year
• More than 300,000 people have been admitted to hospital since July 1 last year - an increase of 2.8 per cent for the same period last year

The number of patients taken to emergency department by ambulance who wait less than 30 minutes for treatment ('off stretcher time') has remained steady at 79 per cent despite:

• 7 per cent rise in ambulance transports to hospital
• 6.4 per cent increase in ambulance responses
• 6.1 per cent increase in incidents in the year to date

"Reduced delays at emergency departments have enabled Ambulance Paramedics to safely and more efficiently deliver patients into the care of the hospital," Ms Meagher said.

"Emergency departments always give priority to the most life threatening cases, with 100 per cent of patients in this category treated within the National Benchmark of two minutes."

There has been a continued improvement across all triage levels in March 2008:

• 77 per cent of Triage 4 patients had treatment commenced within 60 minutes - 7 per cent above the National Benchmark
• 91 per cent of Triage 5 patients received treatments within 120 minutes - 21 per cent above the National Benchmark

"These figures reflect a continued investment by the Iemma Government into the state's health system and hard work by our frontline medical staff," Ms Meagher said.

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au