Bureau of Health Information report shows Bathurst ED still under stress

And the number of patients who left the emergency department (ED) within four hours of arriving was down from almost 74 per cent in the final quarter of 2019 to just under 46 per cent in the final quarter of 2022.

Western NSW Local Health District has emphasised that the figures for patients receiving treatment on time at Bathurst are better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW, but the health district did not respond directly to questions posed by the Western Advocate about Bathurst Hospital's performance.

The statistics from the last three months of last year come from the Bureau of Health Information's (BHI) latest Healthcare Quarterly report.

According to the BHI, 68.7 per cent of patients at Bathurst Hospital's ED received treatment on time in October to December 2022 - which was down on both the final quarter of 2021 (when 85.5pc of patients received treatment on time) and the pre-COVID final quarter of 2019 (81.3pc of patients).

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It was, though, better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (67.4pc).

The difference between 2022, 2021 and 2019 was more stark for the category of patients who left the ED within four hours of arriving.

Prior to COVID, in the final quarter of 2019, 73.9 per cent of people who attended Bathurst's ED left within four hours.

That dropped to 65.5pc for the same period in 2021 and was down again to 45.8pc for the last quarter of last year.

The percentage of patients transferred from paramedics to ED staff within 30 minutes at Bathurst has also decreased.

During October to December in 2019, 82.7pc of patients brought in by ambulance were transferred to ED staff within 30 minutes.

That rose slightly to 83.5pc of patients in the final quarter of 2021 and dropped to 73.9pc in the corresponding quarter last year.

According to Western NSW Local Health District, Bathurst hospital received 6994 ED attendances during the fourth quarter of 2022.

The Advocate asked the Western NSW Local Health District what factors had led to the drop in the percentage of patients receiving treatment on time at Bathurst ED and leaving within four hours of arriving and whether the health district had a plan to turn around the statistics.

The health district did not provide specific answers to those questions, but it said in a statement that the most recent BHI healthcare quarterly report shows public hospitals across the health district "continued to deliver high quality, safe care throughout the final quarter of 2022, despite sustained high demand for hospital care".

Health district chief executive Mark Spittal said 2022 "was an extremely challenging period for the entire health system and October to December was no exception".

"I want to thank our dedicated staff who performed exceptionally throughout the year, especially in this last quarter as the fourth wave of COVID-19 reached its peak," he said in a statement.

He also said the health district had increased its workforce by 701 full-time equivalent staff between mid-2012 and mid-2022 - including 136 more doctors.

The health district said Bathurst Hospital performed 374 elective surgeries from October to December 2022 and almost nine in 10 elective procedures (84.2 per cent) were performed on time.

It said there were 112 babies born at Bathurst Hospital during the last quarter of the year.

The Advocate asked whether the health district was concerned about a further decrease in performance due to the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' withdrawal of training accreditation for medical registrars at Bathurst Hospital.

The health district said in its statement that services and patient care had not been disrupted by the withdrawal of training accreditation for medical registrars at Bathurst Hospital.

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