Sydney hospital emergency department wait times reveal new problem

As nurses walk off the job at two western Sydney hospitals, it can be revealed ED waiting times have blown out and increasing numbers of patients are leaving before being treated. See the wait time at your local hospital.

One in 10 emergency department patients in hospitals in Sydney’s west have waited so long they have given up and walked out without treatment, new figures reveal.

And the surge is so bad that some hospitals are being forced to erect temporary tent-like coverings in front of emergency departments to do extra Covid-19 testing as they enter — leaving patients exposed to near-freezing winter temperatures.

It comes as Western Sydney nurses from Westmead and Blacktown hospitals walked off the job on Monday morning over chronic staffing issues, exhaustion and burnout.

The NSW Opposition, who analysed data from the NSW Bureau of Health Information to uncover the alarming trend, says it shows the results of ballooning waiting lists and lack of capacity.

They discovered that 11 per cent, or 5700 people in the Western Sydney Health District simply gave up and walked out before treatment in the three month window of January to March this year.

NSW Opposition health spokesman Ryan Park is concerned about people not getting treated at NSW’s overcrowded emergency departments. Picture: Simon Bullard

That’s a 30 per cent jump on the figures from the same time last year. For all of NSW, the figure is a staggering 55,000 who left without treatment, up by 20 per cent on last year.

At Canterbury Hospital, in Sydney’s southwest, patients with drips have been left bundled up with blankets inside temporary marquees erected outside the emergency department entrance.

A temporary tent like plastic structure has been erected over the front of Canterbury Hospital's emergency department, with patients left shivering.

Staff have even put cafe-style outdoor heaters among the waiting chairs inside the makeshift tent, which cuts through the landscaped ferns out the front — but the space is open to the wintry elements.

A Sydney Local Health District spokeswoman said the marquee was to minimise Covid-19 risks inside the ED building.

“Patients are not triaged or treated in the heated marquee at Canterbury Hospital,” she said.

“The marquee provides enhanced COVID-19 screening for patients before they enter the emergency department.”

A temporary tent like plastic structure has been erected over the front of Canterbury Hospital's emergency department, with patients left exposed to the elements while waiting for care.

At Maitland Hospital, the worst for walkouts in the state, the number of patients not seen was 20 per cent, or 2664 people – a leap of 82 per cent.

Mt Druitt Hospital was the third worst, with a figure of 13 per cent.

That compares to Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital where only 2 per cent give up.

Opposition health spokesman Ryan Park argued the figures represented a “crisis” for the health system in Sydney’s rapidly growing west.

A temporary tent like plastic structure has been erected over the front of Canterbury Hospital's emergency department, with patients tested for Covid-19.

“It’s not good for the staff and not good for patients and families who are forced to leave when they are not getting treatment in adequate time,” he said.

“We’ve got places like Maitland which are very concerning and Wollongong.

“Last night a person said that at Wollongong hospital they were forced to get on a train and go to Auburn Hospital to get treatment because the time was going to be too long.

“That’s not reasonable. This was an everyday evening and the problem is this is happening all too often in our hospital system.”

Mr Park said the data reflected a health “crisis”, especially in Sydney’s west. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Sydney’s western suburbs are also bearing the brunt of the blow out in waiting times. At Westmead Hospital, the median wait in ED is now 5 hours and 16 minutes – 71 minutes longer than for the same time last year.

“You don’t go to the emergency department to leave the ED, you go to get treated,” Mr Park said. “It’s very concerning that people are waiting for such a long period of time and then they leave.

“And it’s magnified when you’ve got young children or elderly people and sometimes it’s not possible to wait.”

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was approached for a response and forwarded our questions to NSW Health, who answered that the Omicron outbreak in January had “had an impact on the timeliness of care provided in our hospitals during this most challenging of quarters”.

The NSW Health spokeswoman also said public hospitals remained under “significant pressure” due to high numbers of Covid-19 and flu cases – which also added to staff unavailability.

“High numbers of COVID-19 cases statewide presented serious challenges due to complex presentations and admissions to hospitals and many staff being unavailable – more than 6000 at the peak in January – due to being exposed to or contracting the virus in the community or at work,” she said.

“Despite significant pressures on the health system, the majority of ED patients (70.5 per cent) started treatment on time and almost eight in 10 patients (78.6 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30- minute benchmark.

“As of Wednesday 13 July, 2523 NSW Health staff were in isolation, either due to positive COVID-19 status, exposure to COVID-19, and/or while waiting a negative result.”