Hospitals on the Mid North Coast are facing an increase in patients attending their Emergency Departments (ED), according to Bureau of Health Information (BHI) results for the last quarter of 2023.
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Kempsey District Hospital saw 7145 ED attendances, an increase of 414 or 6.2 per cent when compared with the same quarter of the previous year.
Kempsey Hospital is also the busiest hospital in its peer group, which are hospitals grouped together of a similar size.
There were 938 patient arrivals via ambulance at Kempsey Hospital, which is down 4.4 per cent (43 arrivals) from the same quarter the previous year.
The latest data shows that Port Macquarie Base Hospital is the busiest of the four hospitals in the Mid North Coast Local Health District (MNCLHD).
There were 12,939 ED attendances at Port Macquarie Base Hospital between October and December 2023.
That's an increase of 249 patients (2 per cent) compared to the same period last year and a staggering 608 increase in patient numbers compared to the quarter July to September 2023.
The data also shows that 2846 of patients who attended Port Macquarie's ED did so via ambulance. This is an increase of 204 arrivals (7.7 per cent) compared with the same quarter from last year.
Coffs Harbour is the second busiest hospital in the health district, with 12,279 attendances in the final quarter of 2023, almost 10 per cent more attendances (9.6 per cent) compared with the same quarter in 2022.
There were 38,046 attendances at all four of the MNCLHD EDs throughout the final quarter of 2023, an increase of 5.7 per cent, or 2041 more attendances, compared with the same quarter in 2022.
Thanking healthcare staff
MNCLHD Chief Executive Stewart Dowrick thanked staff for their commitment and dedication to delivering high quality care to patients throughout the busy October to December 2023 period.
"The report shows our District has improved across a range of key performance measures when compared to the same quarter in 2022, including time to start treatment in ED and the number of planned surgeries performed on time," he said.
More than seven in 10 patients (73.3 per cent) started their treatment on time and more than eight in 10 patients (87.8 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to emergency department staff within the 30-minute benchmark.
"We thank the community for its patience during this busy time and want to reassure people that during periods of high demand, all patients are seen and triaged on arrival with the most seriously unwell patients treated first," Mr Dowrick said.
MNCLHD continues to remind the community to keep emergency departments and ambulances for saving lives. If an illness or injury is not serious or life-threatening, we encourage people to call Healthdirect Australia on 1800 022 222, for 24-hour telephone health advice.
The District continues to work incredibly hard to ensure patients requiring planned surgery receive their procedures as soon as possible.
There were 3001 elective surgeries performed in the October to December 2023 quarter, an increase of 11.1 per cent or 299 more surgeries than the same period in 2022. More than eight in 10 patients (82.3 per cent) had their semi-urgent planned surgery performed on time, a 15.5 percentage point improvement compared with the same quarter in 2022.
