Fairfield Hospital makes strides, but still trails NSW average
Fairfield Hospital is seeing emergency room patients quicker and starting their treatments earlier, but a new report reveals it’s still trailing behind the NSW average.
Fairfield
Don't miss out on the headlines from Fairfield. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Fairfield Hospital is seeing emergency room patients quicker and starting their treatments earlier, but a new report reveals it’s still trailing behind the NSW average.
The people who were admitted to Fairfield Hospital’s emergency (T2) healthcare were treated within nine minutes – that’s according to quarterly BHI Hospital data from NSW Health, which covers April to June 2018.
This figure, which doesn’t include resuscitations, is a whole two minutes quicker than the year before, though it is still behind the NSW average of eight minutes.
It is a consistent theme for Fairfield Hospital this quarter, where strides forward were taken to improve patientcare, but they weren’t always enough to put the hospital on sure footing with others in the state.
The percentage of emergency (T2) patients starting treatment on time was a strong example. This quarter the statistic reached 59 per cent, a notable improvement of nearly 10 per cent, but it still fell behind the state’s average of 67 per cent.
The same is true of waiting times for elected surgeries. Generally, most people had to wait longer for non-urgent surgeries, the median figure placing it at 272 days – 17 days more compared to the same period a year earlier.
This was about a month more than the NSW average, where people would be admitted after 234 days.
However, there was one area where Fairfield Hospital made a significant improvement.
About 90 per cent of the people admitted to its emergency department leave it within 5 hours and 39 minutes, with the improvement of more than an hour putting it well ahead of the 7 hour NSW average.
Although emergency (T2) admissions took longer, the hospital was working quicker to treat admissions that weren’t as serious, said Ken Hampson, the acting general manager of Fairfield Hospital.
“I am pleased by Fairfield Hospital’s strong results ... whose improvements are a testament to the hard work and dedication of staff.
“(About) 81 per cent of patients were seen, treated and left the ED within four hours, an increase of nine percentage points.” This statistic bested the NSW average.
Mr Hampson said nearly 99% of elective surgeries were completed within the clinically recommended timeframe.
From April to June 2018, Fairfield Hospital’s emergency department admitted 8512 patients, while Hospital doctors helped deliver 393 babies.