A record number of patients attended hospital emergency departments across the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District in the last three months of 2020.
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ISLHD Executive Director Clinical Operations Margaret Martin said the latest Bureau of Health Information Healthcare Quarterly report revealed there were 44,035 ED attendances in that period.
"These figures represent the highest ever number of quarterly ED attendances for the district, and an increase of almost five per cent on the same quarter in 2019," she said.
"Despite these record attendances, more than 73 per cent of ED patients had their treatment start on time, an improvement of 7.9 percentage points on the same quarter in 2019."
At Wollongong Hospital, 19,086 patients attended ED with 82.6 per cent starting treatment on time - a massive jump of 12.8 percentage points.
"There was a significant increase in the proportion of patients treated on time, which was well above the state peer group average," BHI senior director Hilary Rowell said.
"Slightly less positive was the fact that fewer patients left the ED within four hours of arriving (down around five percentage points to 49.4 per cent)."
Wollongong MP Paul Scully said the data showed the median time patients spent in Wollongong Hospital ED in the quarter had blown out to a record four hours and four minutes - the highest figure in NSW.
"The pressure on Wollongong Hospital's emergency department remains acute with no improvement in median patient waiting times this quarter," he said.
"Wollongong Hospital has again recording the longest ED waiting times in NSW - more than an hour longer than the average for the entire health system."
The BHI figures also showed that Shellharbour Hospital saw nearly 9000 attendances in the three months, with 65.4 per cent starting their treatment on time, while Shoalhaven Hospital had nearly 11,000 attend the ED.
"Shoalhaven did improve ED performance during the quarter on most measures," Ms Rowell said.
"However there was a decrease in the percentage of patients treated on time - just six in 10 - which is below the average (75.6 per cent) for hospitals of a similar size."
The number of ED attendances at Milton Ulladulla Hospital increased by a massive 30 per cent to 5002 - with a 177 per cent rise in non-urgent presentations.
According to Ms Rowell this kind of increase was seen in hospitals where attendance for COVID-19 testing was included in ED figures.
Meantime Ms Martin said initiatives were in place to further improve ED performance.
"Improvement initiatives currently underway within our hospitals, including the ED Transformation Program and Whole of Health Program, will continue to drive further improvements in performance," she said.
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