OVER 5000 patients were seen at the Broken Hill Emergency Department (ED) with 85 per cent having their treatment started on time, during the January to March quarter.
This was better than the New South Wales average (67 per cent).
Ninety per cent of patients arrived and left the emergency department within five hours and 27 minutes during the quarter.
NSW Health has worked with the Australian College of Emergency Medicine to introduce new hospital access targets for local health districts and specialty health networks relating to the time from arrival to leaving the ED.
These new targets are designed to support safe patient care and reflect the complexity of patient needs and the diverse pathways patients may take once they present to an ED.
“This is the first healthcare quarterly report to reflect the new targets. Due to the change in reporting, the results for the new hospital access targets cannot be compared to the previous January – March 2024 quarter,” a Far West Local Health District spokesman said.
“Of those patients treated in the ED who did not require admission or transfer to another hospital, 87.7 per cent were discharged within four hours. Of those who needed to be treated and admitted, or transferred, 73.1 per cent had that occur within six hours.
“Almost all patients (99.2 per cent) spent 12 hour or less in the ED.
“We sincerely thank our highly skilled and dedicated staff who continued to perform well throughout this busy period.”
Throughout the first quarter of 2025, more than nine in 10 semi-urgent presentations (triage category 4) began their treatment on time, an improvement of 8.4 percentage points to 90.8 per cent, compared to the same reporting period in 2024, the spokesman said.
“All patients are seen and triaged on arrival at the ED and, as always, the most seriously unwell patients are treated first. During busy times, people with less urgent conditions can experience longer wait times when there are large numbers of seriously unwell patients being prioritised for emergency care.
“We continue to invest in strategies to improve the timeliness for patients presenting to EDs, including implementing systems to escalate patient flow and prioritising discharges across all clinical disciplines.
“Some of these strategies include the virtual My Emergency Doctor service, development and trial of criteria-led discharge. We also consistently review emergency care assessment and treatment protocols.”
This has come after a budget announcement of $23 million to help reduce overdue surgeries across NSW.
Broken Hill Health Service performed 167 planned surgeries during the first quarter of 2025.
Almost 80 per cent of patients (79.5 per cent) had their surgery performed within the clinically recommended timeframe, an improvement of 4.9 per centage points compared to the same quarter in 2024.
“The majority of improvement was for urgent planned surgeries, 84.6 per cent of which were performed on time in January to March 2025, an improvement of 23.9 percentage points when compared to the same quarter in 2024,” the FWLHD spokesman said.
“Semi-urgent surgeries improved by 13.3 percentage points when compared to the same time last year with 72.4 per cent performed on time.”
Member of the Legislative Council, Stephen Lawrence, said the latest Bureau of Health Information quarterly data shows overdue surgeries have increased by 1745 patients to 8587 in the past quarter.
“This is down from around 14,000 in March 2023, when the NSW Government established the Surgical Care Governance Taskforce, but an increase from around 2000 in mid-2024,” Mr Lawrence said.
“But we know there’s always more that we can do to improve the accessibility of planned surgeries.”
The construction for the Broken Hill Health Service redevelopment is also underway.
The $10 million upgrade will see the emergency department reconfigured to better meet the health needs of the region, including tailored treatment spaces for children and those requiring mental health services.
Construction has also commenced on the new Wentworth Health Service following the announcement of the main works contractor and sod turn event at the end of 2023.
Far West Local Health District encourages people to call healthdirect on 1800 022 222 for non-life-threatening conditions, where a registered nurse will help connect you with the right care.
