Recent data for Shoalhaven Hospital shows only 51 per cent of all emergency department patients start treatment on time and the hospital has the fewest on-time elective surgeries in NSW.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Shoalhaven Hospital also continues to have the second lowest percentage of patients who started ED treatment on time. In nearly every measure, the ED had worse performance than the previous quarter and previous year.
The latest figures released by the Bureau of Health Information cover the period between July and September 2019.
Despite fewer patients presenting to the ED requiring emergency level treatment or having an "imminently life-threatening condition" (triage 2), the number of patients Shoalhaven Hospital treated on time was 34 per cent, 13 per cent worse than the year before. It was the second worst result for any hospital in NSW.
It was a similar story for patients who presented to the ED requiring urgent treatment (triage 3). Also the second worst statistic in NSW, only 41 per cent of patients received treatment on time down from 54 per cent of patients in the same period last year.
After the BHI data was published the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District issued a press release.
Read more:
In the statement, it did not mention the ED performance at Shoalhaven Hospital or the under-performance for elective surgeries.
"Nearly all of the 925 urgent surgeries, 99.4 per cent, were completed on time," executive director of clinical operations Margaret Martin said.
"Emergency Department presentations were higher than for the same period last year, with 42,225 presentations in the quarter, a 7.4 per cent increase - over 2,900 presentations more than in same quarter in the previous year."
"In addition, there was an 8.8 per cent increase in the number of people who arrived at our hospital emergency departments by ambulance - 12,268, up from 11,275 for the same period last year."