New South Wales Emergency Departments Stretched To Breaking Point

Emergencies in Emergency


Article heading image for New South Wales Emergency Departments Stretched To Breaking Point

Unsplash

A new report has highlighted our emergency departments reaching some of their busiest levels ever recorded.

According to the latest quarterly survey from the Health Bureau, over 759 thousand people have attended emergency departments across New South Wales from January to March this year.

In comparison to 2016 reports, this is around 86 thousand more patients. 

With emergency departments struggling under mounting pressure, there are fears that seriously injured or sick patients being forced to wait for treatments.

Bureau of Health Information Senior Director Hilary Rowell said,

“The time that a typical patient spends in the ed from arriving to leaving, is 2 hours and 50 minutes”.

Emergencies in New South Wales Emergency Departments: 

Australian Medical Association Doctor Michael Bonning said, 

“Every time someone waits for longer than they need to, or there is difficulty transferring their care from an ambulance to an emergency department, those create risks in our health care systems and scenarios where patients might deteriorate. That’s what we want to prevent”.

Bonning is calling on the federal and state government to work together and improve funding for New South Wales hospitals.

“The five year trend in activities and performance are all heading in a direction we don’t want. And the opportunity here is to fund, resources and staff effectively our public health system, to meet that challenge over the coming years”, he said.

This call for action comes after the widespread rainfall and flooding, as well as the covid pandemic stretched emergency departments to the absolute limit.  

Join journalist Natarsha Belling for the key headlines and analysis on the most important stories of the day on Your Morning Agenda. Available on Listnr.

16 June 2021




Listen Live!
Up Next