Barely half of emergency department patients at Tamworth hospital started treatment on time for three months this year, according to new statistics.
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Even patients categorised "emergency" - the second-most serious category - were left waiting longer than recommended, with just 55 per cent starting treatment on time.
But the city is experiencing a COVID-driven baby boom, with 22.3 per cent more babies born at the Tamworth hospital than the same time last year.
New Bureau of Health Information (BHI) quarterly statistics measuring health data from April to June 2021, show the Tamworth hospital recorded the worst emergency department statistics in the Hunter New England Local Health District.
Executive director of rural and regional health services Susan Heyman blamed a huge 41.5 per cent increase in emergency department presentations for the results.
The biggest increases came among the non-urgent and particularly semi-urgent triage categories, patients who ordinarily might have gone to a GP.
"You're looking at around about an extra 3,500 people just in that quarter coming through," she said.
"Whilst the time at which we were able to treat them reduced, that's not surprising considering the amount of presentations and the type of presentations that came through the door."
Other hospitals in the region reported similar increases in workload.
"NSW emergency departments were the busiest they have been since BHI began reporting in 2010," the BHI report said.
Armidale hospital saw a 43.1 per cent increase in arrivals by ambulance, but managed to start 61.3 per cent of treatments on time.
Gunnedah hospital reported a 27 per cent increase in ambulance arrivals, but 97.8 per cent of treatments for emergency patients started on time.
Ms Heyman said the unprecedented demand surge had already started cooling off since June.
On the other side of the healthcare ledger, emergency surgery waiting lists, look healthier than last year.
Ms Heyman said the health service had made a concerted effort - bringing in extra staff, offering overtime and additional shifts - to get on top of a surgery backlog left by a pause during last year's COVID-19 lockdowns.
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Staff performed an extraordinary 54 per cent more elective surgeries (1200) than the same time the year before.
Just 1,707 patients were left on the waiting list at the end of the quarter, down 11.9 per cent. Just 32 waiting patients were considered urgent.
Tamworth hospital staff delivered 291 babies in just three months, an increase of 22.3 per cent on last year.
A May BHI report showed that 24 per cent of Tamworth emergency department patients went to the hospital because they couldn't see their GP within a reasonable time frame.
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