PATIENTS arriving at Wyong Hospital’s emergency department are waiting less time for treatment to begin, and spending less time overall in the department.
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The finding echoes a trend in the state’s public hospitals revealed in the latest report by the Bureau of Health Information (BHI).
The report compares treatment waiting times for the July to September quarter with the same period last year.
Patients arriving at emergency with serious symptoms such as chest pain (triage 2) were seen within an average of seven minutes.
It’s the same median waiting time recorded at the hospital in the corresponding period last year, and better than the statewide average of 8 minutes.
Those who presented with non-urgent symptoms such as cuts and abrasions waited an average 20 minutes for treatment to begin. That’s an improvement on the 24 minutes experienced at the hospital last year, and better than the state average of 24 minutes.
A total of 15,813 presented for treatment at the emergency award in the quarter – that’s about 172 patients per day.
That’s an increase on the 15,710 who presented in the corresponding quarter last year.
“The report shows, compared to the same quarter last year, the time that patients waited for treatment in NSW emergency departments decreased in all triage categories,” BHI chief executive Jean-Frederic Levesque said.
“There has been a decrease in the time patients waited for their treatment to start, and in the total time they spent in the emergency department.”
Wyong also met the clinically recommended time frames for patients waiting for urgent elective surgery.
All of the 136 patients in that category were treated within the time frame, while 99 per cent of patients in the semi-urgent and non-urgent categories were treated on time.
It meant that the 79 patients requiring vascular surgery waited an average of 20 days for treatment, while the 112 patients requiring urological surgery waited an average 34 days.
There was a much longer wait for those requiring hip or knee replacements.
The 16 patients requiring total hip replacements endured a 335-day wait.
The 35 patients requiring total knee replacements waited an average 307 days for surgery.
