Doctors’ Alliance welcomes the NSW Government’s commitment to doctors-in-training health and wellbeing
November 18, 2017
President’s Word: How can we do better?
January 9, 2018AMA (NSW) President, Prof Brad Frankum, says the records set by the latest Bureau of Health Information report are part of a pattern the BHI has shown since it started reporting.
“There’s no denying that this year’s flu season was very bad but it should be noted that this is the first time this year we’ve broken records for emergency presentations at NSW hospitals.
“In 2016, emergency department presentation records were broken in the first quarter and then again in the fourth quarter.
“We came very close to the Q4 2016 all-time record in Q1 of 2017, as the number of emergency presentations during January to March this year exceeded the record-setting number seen during the same period in 2016.
“The message the BHI quarterly survey results are sending is that hospitals are facing record or near-record demand at all times of year and that this pressure is continuous, unrelenting, and building.
“More than 720,000 people attended emergency departments in NSW between July and September this year.
“That is the first time there have ever been more than 700,000 patients attend EDs in a single quarter and it is more than 35,000 additional attendances over the previous record.
“While some of this extra activity can be blamed on the horrendous flu season, sadly, this is just part of the same pattern the BHI reports have been describing for years,” Prof Frankum said.
“2016-17 was a horror summer in terms of hospital activity.
“We’ve just had a record flu season in winter and before that it was a busy autumn and it was followed by a busy spring as well – demand is beyond capacity and it is still growing.
“This is something that is already having negative effects on doctors, hospital staff, and patients.
“Even though the excellent staff at NSW public hospitals have been able to hold the line up until now, it is entirely obvious we cannot continue like this.
“We need greater capacity at hospitals, we need to better utilise general practice and other out-of-hospital specialist care, and we need to do it fast.
“Continuing as we are will lead to the collapse of the excellent standards of care NSW residents have come to expect – and should be able to continue to expect,” Prof Frankum said.
Media contact: Lachlan Jones 0419 402 955