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Patients are coming to hospital with higher healthcare needs than ever before, according to new figures released by the Bureau of Health Information’s (BHI) Healthcare Quarterly report for July to September 2022.
“We’re seeing an increase in the number of patients who need immediate care for life-threating conditions. These patients are suffering from a critical injury or cardiac arrest or experiencing serious chest pains, breathing difficulties or severe fractures,” said AMA (NSW) President, Dr Michael Bonning.
The BHI reports there was a 10.7% (583) increase in triage category 1 presentations and a 11% (10,993) increase in category 2 presentations compared with the same quarter in 2019 (pre-pandemic activity).
After the record-breaking figures from last quarter, there were some slight improvements in the measurements.
“Just over half (53.2%) of triage 2 patients had their treatment start on time, which is actually upslightly from the record low experienced in the previous quarter,” Dr Bonning said. “However, I think it’s way too early to celebrate these as wins. Overall, the trend very clearly indicates we have a hospital system that has been under increasing pressure for the last 10 years.”
The report also reveals the system still hasn’t managed to get back to pre-pandemic levels of elective surgery. There were 55,493 surgeries performed, down 10.6% (6,594) compared with the same quarter in 2019. This included a record high of 5,261 elective surgeries contracted to private hospitals.
“We still need a long-term plan for elective surgery. We want to see a shift to performing more elective surgeries in public hospitals – this is important for the patients and for training doctors.”
There were 99,985 patients on the waiting list at the end of September, up 1.4% (1,360) from the preceding quarter.
A record 20,494 patients were waiting for semi-urgent surgeries. At the end of the quarter, 17,893 patients on the waiting list had waited longer than clinically recommended – down from the record high in the preceding quarter. Most of these patients were waiting for semi-urgent (29.7%) and non-urgent (70.1%) surgeries.
“Elective surgery is necessary surgery and delays often impact the quality of life for patients. We need a long-term funding commitment that expands capacity in the public hospital system,” Dr Bonning said.
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