Lack of access to general practitioners is driving record-high emergency department attendances and ambulance call-outs in NSW, according to the state's health minister. / (min cost $ 0 ) or signup to continue reading But Ryan Park says he has no control over the number of GPs and has to deal with commonwealth funding arrangements. People are facing increasingly long waits, or giving up and leaving the state's strained public hospitals, fresh data released on Wednesday has revealed.
NSW emergency departments were flooded with 810,201 attendances 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. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) described the situation as a "catastrophe waiting to happen" that could only be fixed with sizeable investment. Emergency-department attendances reached the highest of any quarter since the state's Bureau of Health Information began reporting in 2010.
Just over two-thirds of those who attended emergency departments started treatment on time, but only 55.9 per cent of patients left within the targeted four-hour period - a record low. The figures come amid a falling number of GPs providing care to patients in the state.
One in 10 people spent nearly 11 hours in emergency departments, while more than 74,000 patients left without treatment or with incomplete care - an increase of almost 17 per cent. Mr Park said emergency departments were under unbelievable pressure. "We're a.
