Mid-North Coast: New stats reveal major surge in hospital emergency admissions
Mid-North Coast emergency departments were inundated with thousands of new patients seeking treatment for conditions during the second quarter of 2021. See why.
Mid-North Coast
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Thousands of extra patients poured through the doors of Mid-North Coast hospitals during the second quarter of 2021, compared to the same time last year when Covid first hit the region.
The Bureau of Health and Information (BHI) has revealed new statistics that show the spike in presentations to the region’s ED’s, in some cases by more than 35 per cent, between April and June 2021 compared to the same time in 2020.
The second quarter of 2021 was one of the busiest NSW Health has ever recorded in ED presentations, elective surgeries, Ambulance responses and babies born, as the system recovered from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with just the first week of the current outbreak recorded in this quarter.
There was a 31.7 per cent increase in ED attendances to 36,553 in the April to June 2021 quarter, compared with 27,757 ED attendances for the same period last year, a rise of 8,796 attendances.
At Coffs Harbour Health Campus, there was a 34 per cent increase in ED attendances as compared to the same period last year (11,369 compared to 8,486) and a 25.5 per cent increase in Kempsey District Hospital (7,576 compared to 6,039).
Port Macquarie Base Hospital recorded a total of 12,489 ED attendances between April and June 2021, which was 35.2 per cent, or 3,253, up on the same quarter last year.
The proportion of patients leaving the ED within the recommended four hour benchmark was down six per cent at 70.8 per cent (compared to 76.8 per cent in the same quarter last year).
Mid-North Coast Local Health District (MNCLHD) say the figures from April to June 2021 are not unexpected, and confirm the significant pressures associated with preparing for and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its chief executive Stewart Dowrick said public hospitals across the state have faced unprecedented challenges and have had to adapt their service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Through these difficult times, our staff have worked exceptionally hard to ensure we continue to provide a safe environment with quality and timely care for our patients,” he said.
Mr Dowrick said elective surgery performed across the District continued to bounce back to pre-Covid levels and beyond after being significantly impacted by the national suspension from late March 2020.
“Between April and June 2021, we performed 3,437 procedures at our public hospitals with 77.4 per cent of all surgery completed on time,” he said.
“Coffs Harbour Health Campus performed 100 per cent of urgent elective surgery procedures on time, while Port Macquarie Base Hospital performed 99.6 per cent on time.”
“We recognise that COVID-19 has impacted our patients’ access to elective surgery and we have been working to fast-track all procedures that were delayed,” he said.
Between mid-2012 and mid-2021, MNCLHD increased its workforce by an additional 1,128 full-time equivalent staff – an increase of 41.3 per cent including 137 more doctors, 538 more nurses and midwives and 85 more allied health staff.
In the 2021-22 Budget, the NSW Government announced $1.1 billion to continue the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
This takes the total commitment to the health system to manage the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic to more than $4 billion since March 2020.
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