NSW Health Deputy Secretary Susan Pearce said it could take up to 12 months to clear the backlog. She said hospitals were working at “reducing the number of people overdue” after non-urgent surgery was suspended in public hospitals in August as COVID-19 infections surged.
The latest Bureau of Health Information report also reveals a staggering number of ambulance responses to most critically urgent cases during the Delta wave,with 9322 responses to life-threatening conditions – a jump by about 30 per cent compared with the same quarter last year and the highest of any quarter since reporting began in 2010.
The state’s hospital report card for July to September shows 92,276 were on the elective surgery waitlist. Most of the people who were overdue for knee replacements,cataract extractions and tonsillectomies had waited longer than 365 days.
“We have to be realistic ... but it doesn’t mean if you are currently on the list you will still be waiting a year down the track,” Ms Pearce said,noting that a waiting list of roughly 92,000 is significantly below the record 101,000 people waiting after the state’s first COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
“It is the overdue cases that we’ll be focusing on getting down,” she said.
“If you urgently need surgery in NSW,you will get it. Pending whatever Omicron[COVID-19 variant] brings next year.”
Less than half of ambulance responses to P1 or “emergency” cases (42.5 per cent),including unconscious patients,having an acute heart attack or choking,arrived within 15 minutes,which is the lowest of any quarter in a decade.