Bureau of Health Information: Northern Beaches Hospital’s poor treatment times
A new independent report has found four in 10 patients at Northern Beaches Hospital’s Emergency Department are not being seen within the recommended times.
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Four in ten patients at Northern Beaches Hospital’s Emergency Department are not being seen within the clinically recommended time frame, according to the latest statistics.
The Bureau of Health Information’s January to March 2019 quarterly report found that only 59.7 per cent of ED patients started treatment on time.
It comes as a parliamentary inquiry into the running of the new privately-run hospital was voted through by the NSW Legislative Council last week and is due to meet for the first time on Thursday.
NSW Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord said the data vindicates the decision last week to set up a parliamentary inquiry into the Northern Beaches Hospital.
“This independent data is damning,” he said.
“Overall, more than 40 per cent of patients were not treated on time at the new hospital; that is well above the state average of 28 per cent; and this clearly shows that the problems at the Northern Beaches Hospital are systemic.”
He said the data showed an independent parliamentary inquiry was necessary to “get a clear picture of what is happening inside the hospital — and why it is failing patients”.
However, a source at Healthscope, the private operator that runs Northern Beaches Hospital, said the statistics were flawed due to the IT system, which have made the waiting times look “way worse than they are”
BHI chief executive Dr Diane Watson refuted the claim saying the data was of sufficient quality and while an independent review found there was some margin of error in the data, it was within an acceptable limit for public reporting.
“These results now provide a benchmark for activity and performance at Northern Beaches Hospital that can be seen by the community and allow health professionals responsible for delivering care to see what is working well and where there is room for improvement,” Dr Watson said.
Northern Beaches Hospital’s Bureau of Health Information performance results for the period October to December 2018 did not include waiting times, due to issues with the IT system.
The latest quarterly results for the period January to March 2019 come with a caution, but show only 59.7 per cent of the 15,055 ED patients started treatment within the clinically recommended time frames.
That compares with 70.6 per cent with similar hospitals and 77.4 per cent at Royal North Shore Hospital.
In the same period in 2018, 89.8 per cent of patients at Manly Hospital started treatment on time and 85.8 per cent at Mona Vale Hospital. Manly Hospital closed when the Frenchs Forest hospital opened, while Mona Vale Hospital remains open, but lost its acute services.
Guidelines state treatment for emergencies should begin within 10 minutes; for urgent cases it is 30 minutes; semi-urgent 60 minutes and non-urgent 120 minutes.
At Northern Beaches Hospital 58.5 per cent of emergency patients started treatment on time; 53.4 per cent of urgent patients; 65.1 per cent of semi-urgent and 89.6 per cent of non-urgent.
Overall there was a record number of ED presentations across NSW, while timeliness of care was down overall.
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“Emergency departments across the state experienced high demand during the quarter, particularly from patients triaged as emergency or urgent, while there was also a notable 10 per cent increase in arrivals at emergency departments by ambulance,” Dr Watson said.
Northern Beaches Hospital performed well in two main areas; 100 per cent of public elective surgeries were conducted in time, compared with 96 per cent at other similar hospitals and
paramedics transferred 97.6 per cent of patients to ED doctors within the recommended times, compared with 90.2 per cent at similar hospitals.
When the hospital opened last October there were anecdotal complaints of long waiting times in ED.
The private operator Healthscope acknowledged that it had not expected the vast number of emergencies coming through the door and that it was struggling to find enough staff to open more beds.
The hospital launched an international recruitment drive in February hoping to lure UK and Irish staff to the peninsula.
The Manly Daily has asked Healthscope for a comment.
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