Northern Beaches Hospital’s missing stats on Emergency wait times

Vital statistics needed to measure Northern Beaches Hospital’s performance during its first couple of months are missing due to IT issues, according to an independent report.

Exterior of Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest. Picture: Julie Cross.

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The first independent report on the performance of Northern Beaches Hospital does not include Emergency Department wait times because there were problems with the hospital’s new IT system, according to the Bureau of Health Information.

However the quarterly report reveals 631 people — 6.8 per cent — left emergency without or before completing treatment up until December 31.

Beds in the Emergency department at Northern Beaches Hospital. Picture: Julie Cross.

In comparison 2.5 per cent left Royal North Shore Hospital’s emergency without completing treatment.

In the weeks following the opening of the new $600m Frenchs Forest hospital on October 30, patients complained to the Manly Daily about long waiting times.

Northern Beaches Hospital data in numbers from October 31 to December 31:

•9231 patients arrived at emergency, with 631 leaving before being seen or without completing treatment

•70 patients needed resuscitation in emergency

•277 patients had elective surgery, with 99.3 per cent performed on time

•100 per cent of semi-urgent and non-urgent procedures were performed on time

•4380 patients were admitted, including 144 mental health patients

A statement in the BHI report says information is missing due to “challenges experienced in the implementation of a new information system in Northern Beaches’ Emergency Department following its opening”.

One of the resuscitation beds, part of the Emergency Department, at the new Northern Beaches Hospital. Picture: Julie Cross.

Available data on NBH from October 31 until December 31 only covers publicly contracted services, not private operations or procedures.

It shows 9231 patients arrived at ED, of which there were 70 resuscitations, 1617 were classed as emergency, 3952 urgent, 3055 semi-urgent and 521 non-urgent.

In terms of elective surgery, there were 277 procedures, of which 99 were urgent, 92, semi-urgent, and 83 non-urgent, with 99.3 per cent of procedures performed on time. The number of patients on the waiting list ready for elective surgery at the end of the quarter was 602. Of those 11 were urgent, 126 semi-urgent and 465 non-urgent.

There were 264 babies born at NBH up until December 31.

A Healthscope spokesman said NBH looks forward “to having the additional NBH data in the future to allow the hospital to provide a comparable data set to other hospitals”.