Ambulance call-outs and emergency department visits have hit a record high in NSW as people face increasingly long waits or give up and leave the state's strained public hospitals. / (min cost $ 0 ) or signup to continue reading Some 810,201 people attended NSW emergency departments from the start of January to the end of March, an increase of more than five per cent compared with the same period in 2023. Attendances reached the highest of any quarter since the state's Bureau of Health Information began reporting in 2010.
The figures, revealed in a quarterly report released by the bureau on Wednesday, come amid a falling number of GPs providing care to patients in the state. Just over two-thirds of those who attended emergency departments had their treatments start on time, but only 55.9 per cent of patients left within the targeted four-hour period - a record low.
One in 10 people spent nearly 11 hours in emergency departments, while more than 74,000 patients left either without treatment or with incomplete care - an increase of almost 17 per cent on a year earlier. Health Minister Ryan Park said public hospitals were under unprecedented pressure due to past underfunding, which remained a significant challenge. "But we are undertaking the structural reforms to our health system to ensure our community receives the care they need and deserve - by delivering the single largest boost to our workforce in the history of our health system, and creating more pathways to treatment a.
