Challenging Hospital Wait Times to Be Tackled by Taskforce

A New South Wales Ambulance paramedic transports a suspected COVID-19 patient to the Emergency Department of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, on June 4, 2020. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

New South Wales (NSW) premier Chris Minns announced the creation of a taskforce this morning.

The aim of the taskforce is to reduce waiting times for patients in the emergency department.

The need for a taskforce comes after the recent Bureau of Health Information (BHI) and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reports

AIHW reports that 90 percent of patients vising the emergency department (ED) are seen within two hours and four minutes

They also report that 90 percent of patient in the ED are completed with a mean time of 10 hours and 32 minutes.

Meanwhile, BHI reports that 56.6 percent of patients in the ED spent within four hours to be discharged, the worst time since it began recording statistics began in 2010.

Changes will be implemented throughout NSW rural and urban hospitals to battle these statistics.

This includes addressing important issues such as, upgrading patient flow, improving the time of discharge, enhancing the experience of patients in the ED and more.

Minister for Health, Ryan Park commented on the new task force stating it is the “latest initiative in our suite of measures to improve wait times and access to care.”

BHI also reported that one in 10 patients spend longer than 10 hours in the ED.

“Patients just want to receive the care they need and deserve in a timely manner,” Mr. Park said.

General Practitioners (GP) and hospital workers have faced part of brunt of the pressure around wait times

Another BHI report on patient experiences in rural hospitals shows that 45 percent of patients felt they could have been treated by a GP

Hospital workers have induced a lot of the last half decade, with mass patients due to COVID, multiple budget cuts, and lack of staff.

The taskforce aims to battle both these issues.

GPs will have pressure relieved through increasing the ability of pharmacies, virtual care workers, and more.

Hospital workers will receive relief through the task forces initiatives already presented, including the movement of patients to parts of the system with more capacity.

These initiatives have already seen improvements in hospital wait times.

BHI reports that 67 percent of all patients who attended the ED started their treatment on time, improving on last year.

There were also 771,744 patients who attended ED, a 3.6 percent improvement from last year.

NSW Health Deputy Secretary Adjunct Professor Matthew Daly also focused on the positives on the system.

“NSW public hospitals were recognised as the best in the country on performance in emergency departments in 2022-23, ensuring patients continued to receive high-quality care during periods of sustained high demand,” he said.

Mr. Park also focused on the good work done by the hospital workers by stating he was “proud of our healthcare workers who have faced serious challenges.”

Mr. Daly commented his appreciation through commenting on the “outstanding healthcare workers who performed exceptionally well throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.”