Emergency departments (ED) are continuing to see extremely high volumes of patients seeking acute medical care, something nurses say highlights how great the need is for nurse-to-patient ratios across NSW.
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According to the latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) report, one in 10 patients who were treated and admitted to hospital during the October to December quarter in 2023 spent more than 19 hours in the ED.
The volume of critically unwell patients presenting to EDs grew during the quarter, with a record 6,649 triage category 1 (resuscitation) patients up 7.7% and a record 119,389 triage category 2 (emergency) up 5.3% compared to the previous year.
The figures in Cowra were much better with 84.9 per cent of patients leaving the ED within four hours of arriving.
The time to transfer care showed 92.1 per cent of patients transferred into care within 30 minutes.
There were 246 admissions to hospital care from the Cowra ED compared to 271 for the same period in 2022.
The hospital saw 2492 bed days in the quarter, up from 2336 in 2022 with the average length of stay for acute patients being 4.3 days and 12.4 days for non-acute patients.
Thirty nine babies where born in the Cowra Maternity ward, a significant increase from the same quarter in 2022 when 21 babies were delivered by staff in the unit.
'NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) General Secretary, Shaye Candish, said the state numbers highlighted the immense strain nurses were under to deliver emergency care.
"Ambulance responses were the highest on record, while one in 10 patients spent longer than 10 and a half hours in the ED which is almost three hours more than pre-pandemic levels," Ms Candish said.
"We desperately need our metropolitan and regional hospitals to be staffed with the right number of skilled emergency nurses to alleviate these pressures. This is why the rollout of shift by shift ratios of one nurse to every three treatment spaces can't begin soon enough, as our ED nurses need workload relief now.
"Regionally, there was an uptick for the quarter in ED patients attending at Coffs Harbour (up 9.6%), Orange (up 5.6%), Forbes (24.5%) and Kurri Kurri (up 24%) compared to 2022 levels."
NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary, Michael Whaites, said staff were going above and beyond to drive down ED and elective surgery wait times.
"There were 59,422 elective surgeries performed, up 9.4% compared to the same quarter the previous year, yet we still had more than 88,000 patients on the waiting list at the end of December," Mr Whaites said.
"The government needs to adequately invest in this skilled workforce, so nurses and midwives stop leaving the profession, because the pay and conditions are simply not worth sticking around for."
