Emergency departments and ambulance services remain under the pump in NSW, with demand for both continuing to outpace the state's population growth. or signup to continue reading Ambulance personnel attended nearly 285,000 incidents between April and June, a figure the Bureau of Health Information said was the highest experienced since it began reporting the date in 2010. But despite the eight per cent jump compared with the previous year, average response times remained stable.
Nearly 796,000 people presented to NSW's emergency departments between April and June, up three per cent from the same quarter a year earlier. Only 64 per cent of emergency patients started treatment on time, down two per cent from a year earlier. Bureau chief executive Diane Watson said the reasons behind the increase in emergency department and ambulance action were not easily explained, with demand outpacing population growth since 2017/18.
"During this period, ED attendances grew 3.4 per cent faster than the population, even after accounting for the state's increasing average age, while ambulance responses grew 4.5 per cent faster than the population," she said.
Health Minister Ryan Park also pointed to data showing more than 235,000 people were assessed by the HealthDirect service, which allows a patient to receive online advice and potentially avoid a trip to the emergency department. "This is almost a quarter of a million people who may have otherwise ended up a long time in a busy ED," he said.