List of the 10 worst hospitals in NSW: Wait times, cleanliness revealed

How does your local hospital perform on a scorecard which includes communication, wait times and cleanliness? Find out with our interactive list.

Clarissa Bye

@clarissa_bye

2 min read

February 16, 2021 - 1:52PM

NSW

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It is the worst hospital in the state, according to The Daily Telegraph’s data-rich scorecard of how your local hospital performs.

Blacktown Hospital is one of a number in Sydney’s west and southwest that dominate the list of the state’s 10 worst.

Patients in Wollongong, Gosford and the Shoalhaven area are also being let down by the state of their hospitals.

Blacktown had the most entries in the 25 categories of poor-performing hospitals with 13 dishonourable mentions.

In second place on the poor-performing list were four hospitals — Bankstown-Lidcombe, Wollongong, Campbelltown and Liverpool — all scoring 11 mentions each.

And coming in equal third were Nepean and Westmead.

Five newborns have died at Blacktown Hospital in the past 18 months. Nurses, midwives and doctors took industrial action late last year over concerns about patient safety and personal wellbeing.

Liverpool Hospital finished high on the list. Picture: AAP Image/Melvyn Knipe

Blacktown, a 570-bed teaching hospital 34km from the city, scored the worst in wide-range patient surveys on services.

The surveys ask about cleanliness in wards, the chance to speak to doctors and nurses, receiving contradictory advice, pain relief during labour, time spent waiting in ED before being admitted and whether the hospital actually solved the medical issue the patient was suffering from.

“Hospitals like Blacktown are not meeting the health needs of the community now, let alone trying to keep up with the tens of thousands of people who will call the area home in the coming years,” Opposition health spokesman Ryan Park said.

The ambulance bay at Blacktown Hospital.

‘This government has a shocking record when it comes to actually providing hospitals that service the needs of some of the fastest-growing areas in the country.”

Blacktown had the least clean emergency department toilets, while patients ranked Bankstown-Lidcombe the worst public hospital in the state for the ability to talk to a doctor during their stay.

Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospita. Picture: Tim Hunter

Among the top performers were Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and St Vincent’s at Darlinghurst.

Country hospitals dominated many top rankings, partly because of the smaller numbers in the samples, but also because many categories include patient experiences where rural hospitals have time to treat patients well.

That ranges from the cleanest toilets at Young, the best meals at Forbes, the best pain management for birthing women and easy parking at Byron.

Wollongong Hospital. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Simon Bullard.

Doctors at Deniliquin explained X-rays and procedures the best and that hospital also had the shortest time from the emergency department to treatment. Patients rated doctors at Casino the best overall while Parkes Hospital had highest rates of hand-washing by medical staff.

In the city, Royal Prince Alfred had the quickest hip surgery and knee surgery waits, and the quickest elective surgery overall, while St Vincent’s had relatively good surgery waits and low staph infections.

St Vincent’s also had good outcomes on the 30 day mortality rate – making the top ten for heart, stroke and hip survival rates post-hospital.

For emergency department, mortality rate, staph infection and knee and hip replacement waiting time data, our number crunchers accessed the latest available from AIHW.