Figures just released by the Bureau of Health Information show Shoalhaven District Memorial Hospital has some of the worst emergency department delays in the state.
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The statistics from April to June this year show patients at the Shoalhaven ED have some of the worst wait times for treatment for imminently life-threatening conditions.
The hospital also had the second lowest per cent of patients who started treatments within clinically recommended time frames for triage categories 2 and 3. With only 37 per cent and 45 per cent of patients, respectively, being treated within the recommended time.
For 10 per cent of patients with the longest times in triage category 2, those are patients who need to have treatment within 10 minutes - having an "imminently life-threatening condition", had to wait 52 minutes or more. This was the second highest waiting time in NSW.
For average time spent in the ED, Shoalhaven Hospital had the 6th highest wait times in the state. With patients spending an average of three hours and 34 minutes in the ED compared to the state average of two hours and 53 minutes. Over 42 per cent of patients spend more than four hours in the ED.
When asked about the Shoalhaven ED having some of the worst wait times in the state, the Premier said she was confident in the services at the hospital.
"I'm absolutely confident we have world class services here," Ms Berejiklian said
"I know from speaking to Shelley and Gareth... staff there do an unbelievable job.
"Do they need a new hospital? Absolutely, which is why we're building it."
South Coast MP Shelley Hancock said the ED had recently been upgraded and lengthy wait times could be explained by tourism and the flu season.
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"We've just upgraded the emergency department knowing this is going to take maybe four to five years to complete the new hospital... so that's made a real difference," Mrs Hancock said,
"We have a huge tourism area here so... that's the time when often there's a log jam occurring in the ED and also the flu season that we've just been through as well.
"People write to me all the time about the wonderful people who work in the Shoalhaven ED.
"So most of the time, 90 per cent of the time it works extremely well except when we have hundreds of thousands of additional people in Christmas time and when we have flu season so that's the case everywhere."