TAMWORTH hospital continues to show healthy signs of improvement with new figures indicating a big rise in emergency department (ED) efficiency, earning high praise across the state.
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The latest quarterly figures from the Bureau of Heath Information (BHI) showed Tamworth hospital had improved on a range of measures in the ED and the surgery theatres, despite being one of the busiest rural referral hospitals in the state.
Hunter New England Health’s executive director of rural and regional health services, Susan Heyman, paid tribute to the hospital’s staff and health minister Jillian Skinner also acknowledged the “notable” improvement.
The BHI report analysed figures from all of the state’s public hospitals from July to September and compared the latest numbers to the same quarter in 2015.
76.6 per cent of patients were treated, admitted, discharged or referred from Tamworth hospital’s ED within four hours of arrival in the quarter, up from 12.3 percentage points from the same period last year.
The latest report from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) shows Tamworth Hospital’s emergency department and elective surgery performance continues to improve.
“This is a significant and encouraging improvement for one of the state’s busiest emergency departments which saw more than 10,000 presentations for the July to September quarter,” Ms Heyman said.
The hospital was also able to boast an increase to the amount of surgeries performed within the quarter.
There was a four per cent increase to surgeries performed and, according to the BHI report, Tamworth hospital was able to undertake 100 per cent of urgent elective in a clinically appropriate time-frame.
“We continue to strive to ensure patients have ready access to care,” Ms Heyman said.
“We will continue to work closely with surgeons to ensure all patients receive their surgery on time.
“These consistent results could not be achieved without the hard work of our dedicated staff.”
Tamworth’s improved surgery statistics came despite an increase in waiting lists.
At the end of the winter quarter there were 1641 patients “ready for surgery” at Tamworth hospital; a 20.6 per cent rise.
Orthopaedic surgery wait lists ballooned by 56.3 per cent, with 222 patients ready for surgery at September 30, 80 more than in 2015.