See how every public hospital in the state performed in the December quarter when it came to emergency patients seen on time.
Just 65.3% of patients presenting to NSW public hospital emergency departments started their treatment on time in the December 2024 quarter, a new report has revealed.
But the latest Bureau of Health Information Quarterly Report showed that this figure was an improvement on the record low of 61.4% in the preceding quarter.
Some of the worst performing hospitals when it came to patients being seen on time in the emergency department were Campbelltown Hospital (37.4% of patients seen on time), down a whopping 25.8% on the same quarter for the previous year; Griffith Base Hospital (65.7%, down 17.5%); and Maitland Hospital (43.8%, down 15.5%).
The worst performing was Wyong Hospital (47.8%, down 6% on last year).
Others showed strong results, including Canterbury Hospital (71% started treatment on time, up 14.2%), Murwillumbah District Hospital (86.1%, up 5.5%) and Lithgow Hospital (81.4%) which showed a 5.4% increase.
Deniliquin Health Service performed best with (96.7% of ED patients starting treatment on time.
See the full list of all NSW public hospital wait times below.
Demand for emergency departments (EDs) remained very high, with 802,697 attendances to NSW public hospital EDs in October to December 2024. A record 196,617 of those patients arrived by ambulance.
Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, EDs continued to see more patients with the most urgent clinical conditions, while the number of patients in the least urgent triage category (5) dropped by 4.1%.
A special section in the report for the December quarter also looked at the number of patients who left EDs without, or before completing treatment.
In October to December 2024, 67,902 patients fell into this category – an increase of 5.9% (3810) compared with the same quarter a year earlier and up 32% since 2019 – outpacing growth in overall ED attendances.
BHI CEO Dr Diane Watson said the Bureau had conducted a special analysis to understand more about this group of patients.
“The patients with less urgent conditions and patients aged 15-44 years were more likely to leave without, or before completing, treatment,” she said.
“Patients who left were most likely to do so on Mondays – the busiest day of the week – and across the week between 8pm and 4am.”
Regardless of the time of day they arrived in the ED, the overall time spent in the ED for patients who left without, or before completing, treatment was between two and 2.5 hours – although one in 10 patients waited more than six hours in the ED before eventually leaving without completing treatment.
“Previous BHI analyses show that around one in five patients who leave without, or before completing, treatment tend to return to the same or a different ED within three days, contributing to further demand on NSW public hospitals,” said Dr Watson.
NSW public hospital and ambulance services continued to experience significant demand during the quarter, the report showed.
Ambulance activity reached 391,370 responses – up 3.1% on the same time a year earlier and the highest since BHI began reporting in 2010.
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Patients waited longer for an ambulance to arrive with the median response time for the highest priority 1A (P1A) cases 8.4 minutes (up from 8.2 minutes in 2023), and 14.1 minutes for emergency priority 1 (P1) cases (up from 13.2 minutes).
Most of the state’s EDs saw an increase in emergency presentations in the October-December this year.
See the list below, including each hospital’s stats for the percentage of patients whose treatment started on time:
- Armidale Hospital: 59% started treatment on time, down 1.3% on the same quarter for the previous year
- Auburn Hospital: 74.1% started treatment on time, down 3.7%
- Ballina District Hospital: 54% started treatment on time, down 12.7%
- Bankstown-Lidcome Hospital: 59% started treatment on time, down 7.5%
- Bateman’s Bay District Hospital: 81.3% started treatment on time, up 1.1%
- Bathurst Health Service: 68.9% started treatment on time, down 10.6%
- Belmont Hospital: 74.3% started treatment on time, up 0.9%
- Blacktown Hospital: 41.2% started treatment on time, down 1.3%
- Broken Hill Health Service: % started treatment on time, down %
- Byron Central Hospital: % started treatment on time, down %
- Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital: 73.8% started treatment on time, up 2%
- Bowral and District Hospital: 86.9% started treatment on time, down 0.9%
- Broken Hill Health Service: 76% started treatment on time, up 1.3%
- Byron Central Hospital: 77.9% started treatment on time, down 6.4%
- Calvary Mater Newcastle: 83.1% started treatment on time, up 2.4%
- Campbelltown Hospital: 37.4% started treatment on time, down 25.8%
- Canterbury Hospital: 71% started treatment on time, up 14.2%
- Casino and District Memorial Hospital: 67% started treatment on time, down 7.3%
- Cessnock Hospital: 73.2% started treatment on time, down 3.4%
- Coffs Harbour Health Campus: 55.6% started treatment on time, down 6.7%
- Concord Repatriation General Hospital: 81.9% started treatment on time, up 3.2%
- Cooma Hospital and Health Service: 93.5% started treatment on time, up 5.2%
- Cowra Health Service: 86.7% started treatment on time, down 6.7%
- Deniliquin Health Service: 96.7% started treatment on time, up 1.6%
- Dubbo Hospital: 75.5% started treatment on time, up 8.3%
- Fairfield Hospital: 72.7% started treatment on time, down 9.1%
- Gosford Hospital: 55.3% started treatment on time, down 1.9%
- Goulburn Base Hospital: 65.4% started treatment on time, down 3.7%
- Grafton Base Hospital: 56.9% started treatment on time, down 4.8%
- Griffith Base Hospital: 65.7% started treatment on time, down 17.5%
- Gunnedah Hospital: 79.7% started treatment on time, down 3.8%
- Hawkesbury District Hospital: 49.7% started treatment on time, down 10.1%
- Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital: 72.4% started treatment on time, down 11.8%
- Inverell Hospital: 83.7% started treatment on time, up 2.5%
- John Hunter Hospital: 50.7% started treatment on time, down 10.3%
- Kempsey District Hospital: 78.7% started treatment on time, down 2.1%
- Kurri Kurri Hospital: 94.6% started treatment on time, up 2.1%
- Lachlan Health Service – Forbes: 90% started treatment on time, up 2%
- Lismore Base Hospital: 48.3% started treatment on time, down 9.3%
- Lithgow Hospital: 81.4% started treatment on time, up 5.4%
- Liverpool Hospital: 66.1% started treatment on time, up 4.9%
- Macksville District Hospital: 83.3% started treatment on time, down 6.2%
- Maclean District Hospital: 74.2% started treatment on time, down 6.1%
- Maitland Hospital: 43.8% started treatment on time, down 15.5%
- Manning Hospital: 50.9% started treatment on time, up 2.5%
- Milton Ulladulla Hospital: 67.7% started treatment on time, down 2.6%
- Moree Hospital: 67.2% started treatment on time, up 3%
- Moruya Hospital: 73% started treatment on time, down 10.4%
- Mount Druitt Hospital: 58.7% started treatment on time, up 10.1%
- Mudgee Health Service: 73.1% started treatment on time, down 3.4%
- Murwillumbah District Hospital: 86.1% started treatment on time, up 5.5%
- Muswellbrook Hospital: 65.9% started treatment on time, down 0.9%
- Narrabri Hospital: 90.7% started treatment on time, up 2.9%
- Nepean Hospital: 60.5% started treatment on time, down 1.2%
- Northern Beaches Hospital: 70.8% started treatment on time, down 0.2%
- Orange Health Services: 65.5% started treatment on time, down 9%
- Port Macquarie Base Hospital: 60.9% started treatment on time, down 10.2%
- Prince of Wales Hospital: 48.3% started treatment on time, down 7.7%
- Queanbeyan Hospital and Health Service: 80.6% started treatment on time, down 3.5%
- Royal North Shore Hospital: 71.6% started treatment on time, down 5.4%
- Royal Prince Alfred Hospital: 65.5% started treatment on time, up 2.7%
- Ryde Hospital: 84.3% started treatment on time, down 2%
- Shellharbour Hospital: 66.2% started treatment on time, up 2%
- Shoalhaven District Memorial Hospital: 55.5% started treatment on time, down 4.8%
- Singleton Hospital: 73.1% started treatment on time, down 5.5%
- South East Regional Hospital: 70.1% started treatment on time, down 7.3%
- St George Hospital: 56.1% started treatment on time, up 4.7%
- St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney: 62.2% started treatment on time, up 3.4%
- Sutherland Hospital: 54.1% started treatment on time, up 1.2%
- Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick: 76.6% started treatment on time, up 15.8%
- Sydney Hospital and Sydney Eye Hospital: 71.8% started treatment on time, down 7.3%
- Tamworth Hospital: 56.3% started treatment on time, down 2.8%
- The Children’s Hospital at Westmead: 74% started treatment on time, down 2.4%
- Tweed Valley Hospital: 76.5% started treatment on time, down 6.6%
- Wagga Wagga Base Hospital: 61.7% started treatment on time, down 11.2%
- Westmead Hospital: 42.4% started treatment on time, up 5.7%
- Wollongong Hospital: 69.9% started treatment on time, down 0.3%
- Wyong Hospital: 47.8% started treatment on time, down 6%
- Young Health Service: 78.4% started treatment on time, down 12%
The BHI report also showed significant reductions in hospital ramping at some of the busiest EDs in the country.
One of the key indicators of hospital ramping is the proportion of patients transferred from paramedics to ED staff within 30 minutes – also known as Transfer of Care (TOC).
St George Hospital, which received over 82,000 ED attendances last year, saw a 25 percentage point improvement in transfer of patient from paramedic to ED staff in the December 2024 quarter compared with the same period the previous year.
Blacktown Hospital (more than 67,000 ED attendances last year), saw a 23.2 percentage point improvement, Campbelltown Hospital (more than 92,000 ED attendances last year) saw a 9.3 percentage point improvement, and Liverpool Hospital (more than 90,000 ED attendances last year) saw a 7.2 percentage point improvement.
NSW health minister Ryan Park said relieving pressure on EDs and ensuring people receive care in a timely manner had been top priorities of our government.
“Such significant challenges have been met with a significant half-a-billion-dollar investment in ED relief,” he said.
“Today, I’m so pleased to see encouraging progress in our effort to reduce ramping. But I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves, because there is still much more to do.
“I do want to reiterate that people who present to hospitals with non-life-threatening conditions can still expect to wait long periods in the ED.”
He “strongly encouraged” those people to phone Healthdirect to “avoid an unnecessary wait in the ED and receive care outside of the hospital including through urgent or virtual care services”.