Sydney Children’s Hospital patients waiting too long in ED
Almost 40 per cent of young patients who visit the Sydney Children’s Hospital emergency department are left waiting too long before receiving treatment, according to the latest data. Find out what the hospital said.
Southern Courier
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Almost 40 per cent of young patients who visit the Sydney Children’s Hospital emergency department are left waiting too long before receiving treatment, according to the latest data.
The Bureau of Health Information has released its quarterly data for April to June 2019, highlighting how public hospitals are performing across the state.
During that time, 60.7 per cent of patients who presented at the hospital’s ED in Randwick started their treatment on time.
That means while 5800 patients began their treatment on time at the emergency department another 3700 were left twiddling their thumbs or spitting their dummy waiting to be treated within the recommended timeframe.
Comparatively, 71.8 per cent of patients started their treatment on time on average across all public hospitals in NSW.
The Sydney Children’s Hospital said part of the reason patients were left waiting was a spike in people suffering from the flu.
A spokeswoman for The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network - which oversees both children’s hospitals in Sydney (Randwick and Westmead) - said thousands more patients had presented at its emergency departments.
“As expected, the longest flu season in NSW since the 2009 pandemic has influenced the amount of patient presentations to emergency departments across the state, reflected in the Bureau of Health Information report on the April to June quarter,” the spokeswoman said.
“During the busy winter period, both Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network EDs saw a combined total of 25,917 patients.
“This was up more than 12 per cent or 2800 patients compared to the same period last year.”
The spokeswoman said a new emergency department which has been earmarked for the hospital would help it better address the high demand in future.
“To assist in meeting an increasing demand for paediatric emergency facilities, a new ED at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick is being planned as part of the NSW Government’s $608 million hospital redevelopment.”
She also urged those with non-urgent medical issues to see a GP rather than visit the emergency department.
Meanwhile, 69 per cent of patients who presented at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead emergency department started treatment on time between April and June.
The recommended timeframe for starting treatment, after presenting at an emergency department, is calculated using a triage system.
The Australasian triage scale is broken into emergency: 10 minutes; urgent: 30 minutes; semi-urgent: 60 minutes; non-urgent: 120 minutes.
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