Health District Hospitals Cope With Covid-19 Demands
Southern NSW Local Health District (SNSWLHD) Emergency Departments (EDs)
continued to perform well in the April to June quarter while dealing with the impacts
of COVID-19 on local services.
The latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) quarterly report shows that more than
21,500 people presented to the District’s EDs from April to June 2020, a decrease of
26.1 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Chief Executive of SNSWLHD, Margaret Bennett, said “The decrease in overall
presentations to the District’s emergency departments was similarly seen across the
state throughout this quarter, which is partly attributable to COVID-19 restrictions such
as stay-home measures.”
"While we experienced a drop in presentations, clinicians have been kept busy with
COVID-19, with a total of 11,164 tests completed across the District in both inpatient
and outpatient settings during that period alone.
84.6 per cent of patients left the ED within four hours, compared with a NSW state
result of 75.3 per cent, up 0.8 per cent on the same quarter in 2019.
“The most urgent patients in our emergency departments were treated more quickly
and, importantly, 100 per cent of urgent surgeries were performed on time.”
“All our staff are doing a wonderful job providing the best quality patient care during
this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the District performed better
than the statewide results, with urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent surgery
procedures all performing ahead of the state average.”
Ms Bennett said the figures come on the back of extensive investment by the NSW
Government in a number of facilities across the District, including the $150 million
Goulburn Hospital and Health Service redevelopment, with an upgraded Goulburn
Base Hospital as the main element of the project.
Furthermore, $18.6 million is being spent redeveloping Cooma Hospital, and $150
million has been committed to building a new health facility in Eurobodalla.
A total of $8 million spent on the Yass Hospital redevelopment, with funding for the
Braidwood Multipurpose Service (MPS) redevelopment coming from the $304 million
State-wide program of works to upgrade MPS facilities in a number of rural and
remote communities across NSW.
At Crookwell District Hospital, $2.5 million has been committed for refurbishment
works.
The NSW Government has committed $800 million extra funding over two years on
top of the 2019-20 Health Budget of $26.7 billion to help boost ICU capacity and
purchase additional services and medical equipment, to help respond to COVID-19.
Individual Hospital Results:
Batemans Bay District Hospital had 2,562 ED presentations, down 36.0 per cent,
or 1,438 fewer people compared with the same quarter in 2019. The proportion of
patients leaving the ED within four hours was 85.9 per cent, well ahead of the state
target, while the median time to leave the ED was one hour 44 minutes, well ahead
of the NSW median.
At Moruya District Hospital, had almost 2,200 ED attendances, and recorded
improvement in ED performance, with 78.7 per cent of patients leaving the ED within
four hours, an improvement of 1.3 percentage points compared with the same period
in 2019. Meanwhile, the median time to leave the ED was two hours 19 minutes,
ahead of the NSW median.
Like other hospitals across the district, Goulburn Base Hospital ED experienced a
decrease of 22.9 per cent or 1,115 presentations compared to the same period in
2019. During the quarter 76.3 per cent of patients left the ED within four hours, which
was a 0.3 percentage point improvement and ahead of the state average. All patients
who were admitted for urgent elective surgery were admitted on time.
In the mental health setting, 3.8 per cent of events resulted in a seclusion event, an
increase of 0.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, with a physical restraint
event occurring in 9 per cent of episodes, an increase of 3.3 per cent. The per cent
and rates of seclusion and restraint events are volatile, and changes across periods
should be considered with caution.
Like other hospitals across the district, Cooma Hospital recorded a decrease in ED
presentations, with 2,029 over the quarter, a drop of 25 per cent compared to the
same quarter in 2019. Cooma Hospital was above the state target and on par with
peer group results in ED performance, with 85.2 per cent of patients leaving the ED
within four hours of presentation.
More than 92 per cent of elective surgery was performed on time during the quarter
which was ahead of the State and peer group average. This was despite the Federal
Government’s nation-wide direction to cease non-urgent surgeries on 26 March.
Like other hospitals across the district, Queanbeyan Hospital recorded a 26.8 per
cent decrease in ED presentations, down to 4,510, or 1,649 fewer patients,
compared to the same quarter in 2019. A total of 88.4 per cent of patients left the ED
within four hours, ahead of the state target and the peer group average.
Elective surgery performance at the hospital remained strong, with 100 per cent of
urgent surgery performed on time, and performance across all categories was above
the state and peer group average.
This was despite the Federal Government’s nation-wide direction to cease non-
urgent surgeries on 26 March.
South East Regional Hospital (SERH) saw an increase in the number of T1
(resuscitation) and T2 (emergency) presentations during the quarter. Despite the
increase in these categories, 85.5 per cent of patients started their treatment on time,
ahead of the state and peer group average.
Elective surgery performance at the hospital remained strong, with 100 per cent of
urgent surgery performed on time, and performance across all categories was above
the state and peer group average.
This was despite the Federal Government’s nation-wide direction to cease non-
urgent surgeries on 26 March.
South East Regional Hospital recorded no seclusion events during the period and a
drop of 1.8 percentage points in physical restraint events, down to 2.7 per cent of
episodes.
The 2019-20 budget for Southern New South Wales Local Health District
(SNSWLHD) is almost $434 million. This is an increase of nearly $13 million on the
previous financial year’s budget.
Between mid-2012 and mid-2019, the Southern New South Wales Local Health
District increased its workforce by an additional 467 full time equivalent staff - an
increase of 26.4 per cent including 49 more doctors, 158 more nurses and midwives,
and 68 more allied health staff.
The NSW Government is also investing $2.8 billion to recruit 8,300 extra frontline staff
over the next four years, including an additional 5,000 nurses and midwives.
