At the same time,NSW Ambulance responded to a record 363,251 calls,more than 181,000 of which were classified as emergencies requiring lights and sirens – the highest number recorded by the Bureau of Health Information for any three-month period since 2012.
The continued strain on frontline workers has prompted Health Minister Ryan Park to establish a taskforce charged with cracking down on bed block,improving the wellbeing of emergency department staff and patients,and preventing non-urgent patients ending up in hospital emergency departments and wards.
“Having people and their loved ones waiting around in our hospitals for lengthy periods of time is neither good for them,nor our staff,nor other patients,” Park said. “Where we can safely improve access to care and treatment – including timeliness – we will do it.”
In a survey released on Wednesday alongside the quarterly data,45 per cent of patients in small rural hospitals in 2023 said they visited an emergency department with a condition they felt could have been treated by a GP.
Dr Clare Skinner,a Sydney-based emergency doctor and the immediate past president of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine,welcomed the announcement but said desperate patients and their carers should not be blamed for increased wait times.
“I really worry about a taskforce that states as one of its aims reducing unnecessary presentations,” she said. “These minor complaints do contribute to some of the workload,but it’s really about the people who have serious chronic conditions who deteriorate to the point they need emergency care.”