Tweed tops busiest hospitals list

TWEED Valley Hospital has topped the list as the busiest hospital in the region, with a record 153 emergency attendances in the past quarter.

The figure marks a 4.6 per cent increase and is the highest number of emergency presentations recorded at the hospital.

Most patients at Tweed (76.5 per cent) began treatment on time, a considerable improvement on the average for comparable hospitals which sits at 58.1 per cent.

Across the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD), hospital emergency department presentations have risen to nearly 60,000, an increase of 2.9 per cent.

NNSWLHD hospitals also recorded the most ambulance arrivals on record, an increase of 5.3 per cent, and the percentage of patients transferred from ambulance paramedics to ED within the 30-minute benchmark remained unchanged at 78.7 per cent.

District services performed 3,326 planned surgeries during the quarter, and 82.6 per cent of these surgeries were performed on time, an improvement of 6.6 per cent.

Almost 80 percent of semi-urgent and 79.4 percent of non-urgent planned surgeries were performed on time, an improvement of 8.8 and 9.5 percentage points, respectively.

A spokesperson for NNSWLHD said strategies were continuously in place to improve the timeliness of patients presenting to EDs. These include investing in patient flow discharge concierges, reviewing emergency assessment and treatment protocols, and supporting pre-emptive systems such as Urgent Care Centres and Hospital in the Home.

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