Busy start to winter for hospital

Narrabri Hospital marked a busy start to winter with emergency department attendances increasing.

Latest data from the Bureau of Health Information shows 1652 people presented to the emergency department from April to June 2023.

The numbers represented an 11 per cent increase on the same quarter in 2022.

Of the 1652 people attending the emergency department, 89 per cent started treatment on time making Narrabri Hospital the second best performing health facility in the Hunter New England Local Health District for on-time treatment.

The health district’s chief executive Tracey McCosker thanked staff for their hard work throughout another busy quarter.

“The latest Bureau of Health Information Healthcare Quarterly report April to June 2023 shows it has been a challenging start to the winter season. Our teams have been faced with a high volume of patients, with 111,942 attendances to our EDs, including a record number of people who were sicker and required more complex care,” Ms McCosker said.

“I’d also like to recognise our smaller, regional facilities including Gunnedah, Inverell, Kurri Kurri and Narrabri who continue to outperform their state peers, seeing their patients sooner.”

“Throughout the quarter, there were 14,805 presentations by those with an imminently life-threatening condition (triage category 2). This is the highest number of patients in this category in any quarter since BHI began reporting.”

Despite this increase in demand, the majority of patients (67 per cent) started their treatment on time, which is better than the NSW average (65.8 per cent).

“We continue to remind everyone to support us by saving emergency departments and ambulances for saving lives. If an illness or injury is not serious or life-threatening, we encourage people to call Healthdirect Australia on 1800 022 222, for a 24-hour telephone health advice,” Ms McCosker said.

“A total of 7403 planned surgeries were performed across HNELHD during the quarter, an increase of 8.3 per cent, or 566 surgeries, compared with the same quarter last year. Almost all urgent planned surgeries (99.7 per cent) were performed on time.

“The district remains committed to providing timely access to care for our patients and will continue to focus on ensuring people who are overdue for a planned surgery receive it as soon as possible.

“Patients due to receive non-urgent planned surgery who have been impacted by previous planned surgery cessation restrictions are encouraged to seek medical attention should they experience a change in their condition so they can be clinically reviewed and re-prioritised to a more urgent category if required.”

Additional data from the BHI shows that 22 surgeries were performed at Narrabri Hospital during the quarter.

Admissions for the quarter totalled 413.

Sixteen babies were also born in Narrabri, an increase on previous quarters.