Canterbury Hospital disputes waiting times figures from MP
MORE than one in five patients had to wait longer than the national benchmark of four hours in the Emergency Department at Canterbury Hospital, according to Canterbury state Labor MP Sophie Cotsis.
The Express
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MORE than one in five patients had to wait longer than the national benchmark of four hours in the Emergency Department at Canterbury Hospital, according to Canterbury state Labor MP Sophie Cotsis.
Ms Cotsis quoted independent data from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) which showed 78,000 people are on elective surgery waiting lists in the state.
The Sydney Local Health District, however, said almost 80 per cent of patients attending the emergency department were treated within four hours or less, and said they “performed extremely well despite an increase in patient numbers”.
“This is up from 66.8 per cent five years ago when patient numbers were lower,” a SLHD spokeswoman said.
“While the government has neglected its responsibilities to the people of NSW to properly fund public hospitals, the suffering is borne by local residents such as those living in Canterbury that continue to wait for surgery,” Ms Cotsis said.
“Since being elected to Canterbury, I have demanded the Berejiklian Government provide additional funding and resources to Canterbury Hospital.
“To date the premier has not provided a single additional dollar or bed.”
The Sydney Local Health District spokeswoman said: “The median time that patients spent in the emergency department was two hours and 55 minutes, down from 3 hours and 18 minutes five years ago.
“In elective surgery during this period, 100 per cent of patients were treated within clinically appropriate timeframes, despite a 13 per cent increase in the number of people needing urgent surgery.
“Since 2015, we have employed an additional 25 doctors and 32 nurses/midwives at Canterbury Hospital.
The spokeswoman said they also have invested $5.6m in upgrades/refurbishments to the hospital, including an emergency department short stay unit (in 2014), High Volume Short Stay Surgical Unit (in 2015), aged care ward refurbishments (in 2016) and an ED waitroom consultation room (in 2018).
Ms Cotsis said long waiting lists not only places unnecessary pressure on doctors, nurses and care staff but also causes unneeded stress for patients.
“This is symptomatic of a health system under growing pressure with growing waiting times in emergency departments and elective surgery,” Ms Cotsis said.
“Premier (Gladys) Berejiklian needs to get the government’s priorities right and should be investing funds in our public hospitals instead of spending over $2 billion on building new stadiums.”