March performance shows more people than ever visiting our Emergency Departments

Hunter New England Health hospitals continue to perform well, with March 2007 performance figures showing patients are being treated within benchmark times and waiting lists continue to decrease.

Hunter New England Health Acting Director of Operations, Acute Networks Tracey McCosker said the March results show consistent performance throughout the area in a time of increased attendances to Emergency Departments.

“The performance results show the good work being done by hospitals to improve access to care for patients is paying off. We have continued to achieve above benchmark performance in almost all Emergency Departments”.

“Patients at Armidale, Belmont, John Hunter, Manning and Tamworth hospitals were transferred from care in the Emergency Department and admitted to an inpatient ward within the benchmark eight hours.”

The Calvary Mater Newcastle experienced its busiest inpatient month since June 2006,
coinciding with an increase in Emergency Department attendance of 13 per cent compared to the same time last year. This resulted in the Emergency Department admitting 75 per cent of patients from the Emergency Department to a ward within eight hours of the commencement of treatment.

John Hunter Hospital Emergency Department continues to be among the busiest Emergency Departments in the state, caring for 5,109 patients in March 2007, an increase in the level of activity from 4,719 in March 2006. Despite more attendances, John Hunter Hospital has managed to maintain its good performance for this period.

“We have been working hard to reduce the number of long wait patients and will continue to make this a priority. Staff continue to see the results of their hard work, as in March 2007 there were only three patients waiting longer than 12 months for their surgery, compared to 67 patients in March 2006,” Ms McCosker said.

“The Health Service is working hard to continuously improve our systems so we can provide more efficient and timely care for patients in our increasingly busy hospitals.”

Hunter New England Health Emergency Department
Performance Figures for March 2007

** MEDIA NOTE: Access Block is the percentage of patients for whom the decision has been made to admit them who wait for longer than eight hours in the Emergency Department once their treatment has commenced before being transferred to an inpatient bed.

Contact: Nerida Walker

Phone: 4921 4477