The latest report by the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) shows that Lithgow Health Service emergency department is keeping up will central western departments and performing significantly above state averages.
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The quarterly report, which presented data from NSW hospitals between October and December 2016, found that 19,817 more patients presented to NSW emergency departments than the previous quarter.
Lithgow Health Service only experienced a slight increase in patients presenting at the Emergency Department on the previous quarter.
The median waiting period for patients in need of ‘Emergency’ and ‘Urgent’ treatment at the Lithgow Health Service was five and 10 minutes respectively. The state median for this quarter was eight minutes and 20 minutes respectively. The time for patients to receive treatment has increased slightly for some triage levels, although all treatment times are significantly less than state medians.
The median amount of time spent by patients in Lithgow’s emergency department was one hour and 30 minutes, a two-minute improvement on the previous quarter’s figures, and one hour less than the state median.
The Lithgow Health Service performed well against other emergency department’s in the central west. The report found 88 per cent of patients spent four hours or less in the Lithgow Health Service Emergency Department, the highest percentage of departments in Bathurst, Dubbo, Mudgee and Orange.
At Lithgow’s emergency department 94 per cent of patients who arrived by ambulance were transferred into the care of emergency department staff within 30 minutes, the highest percentile achieved by all central western departments barring Orange.
Lithgow Health Service, however, has the longest wait for semi-urgent surgery out of the central western departments, with a median wait time of 56 days. The shortest median wait time, 45 days, was achieved by Dubbo.
