THE Bureau of Health Information (BHI) has released its latest Healthcare Quarterly report, showing continued growth in demand for emergency department (ED) and ambulance services in NSW from Apr to Jun 2024.
ED attendances reached 795,817 during the quarter, a 3.3% rise from the same period in 2023 - highlighted by all the peak pharmacy organisations who continue to call for expanded scope of practice to deal with the mounting pressures on hospitals.
Ambulance activity set a new record with 385,345 responses, up 7.8% from the same period in 2023.
Despite this increase, response times remained steady.
BHI Chief Executive Dr Diane Watson noted the rising demand for ED and ambulance services across the state.
"Our analysis has shown that since 2017-18, ED attendances have grown faster than the population, while ambulance responses also grew faster in the last year of analysis alone," Dr Watson commented.
The report also highlighted an increase in patients presenting with urgent conditions, with more cases categorised in the three most serious triage levels than in any previous quarter since 2010.
However, only 63.7% of patients began treatment on time, down 2.1 percentage points from the same quarter last year.
The report also revealed that 59,105 elective surgeries were performed from Apr to Jun 2024, with a significant drop in patients waiting longer than clinically recommended, from 9,107 in 2023 to 1,859 in 2024.
BHI also released The insights series - Patients' experiences of hospital care over time, which surveyed over 200,000 patients since 2018.
The report showed improvements in how ED staff monitored patients while waiting, but a decline in patients feeling involved in discharge decisions.
Dr Watson emphasised that better patient experiences can enhance clinical outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions. JG
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