The release of the latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) today confirms nearly 100,000 people in New South Wales are still waiting for elective surgery and NSW Ambulance is under sustained pressure with more responses than in any quarters since BHI began reporting in 2010.
 
There were more than 67,000 people who left the Emergency Departments without receiving the treatment they desperately needed.

Across the state:

• 67,898 patients walked into an Emergency Department in the last 3 months and left without, or before completing treatment.  
• Almost half of all critical emergency patients presenting to the ED did not have their treatment start on time.
• One in 10 patients who were treated and admitted spent more than 19 hours and 57 minutes in the ED.
• Almost 40 per cent of life threatening patients, with conditions like cardiac or respiratory arrest, waited longer than the 10-minute target for an ambulance to arrive.
• Almost 100,000 people were on elective surgery waiting lists at the end of December, including more than to 17,000 who had waited longer than clinical guidelines say they should.

There are more than 17,000 patients who have waited longer than clinically recommended for their essential elective surgery. This comes just days after it was revealed that operating theatres in Westmead Children’s Hospital are being used for storage rather than performing surgeries.
 
These results illustrates the state of our health system after 12 years of Dominic Perrottet and the Liberals.
 
The Liberals’ cap on the wages of our nurses, paramedics and allied health workers is making it harder to recruit and retain people in these essential roles, making understaffing in our hospitals even worse.
 
It’s not fair on our hardworking healthcare professionals to have to manage a system that is stretched to its limits.
 
For the last 12 years, our health system and the people who work in it have been neglected by the Liberals and Dominic Perrottet. New South Wales lost 365 hospital beds, and we have a shortage of nurses who are leaving the profession.

Labor will remove the cap on our essential workers’ wages so we can work with them – our nurses, hospital workers and paramedics – to improve their working conditions, stop them quitting and attract more people to these vital roles.
 
Labor’s fresh start for health & hospitals in NSW
 
Labor has a comprehensive long-term plan to redesign and repair the health system and deliver a fresh start for health in New South Wales. A Minns Labor Government will:

1. Safe staffing levels in NSW hospitals. It will help with workloads; it will take pressure of nurses and ensure they can treat patients with the care they deserve and need.
2. An additional 500 rural and regional paramedics in Labor’s first term.
3. Returning 600 beds to Western Sydney after 365 were across NSW by the Liberals since 2016.
4. Upgrades to Canterbury, Fairfield, Mount Druitt and Blacktown Hospitals and opening the new Eurobodalla Hospital at Level 4.
5. A commitment to build Rouse Hill Hospital including an emergency department.

Quotes attributable to Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns:

“Another set of BHI results that clearly show what we have been saying for a long time now; this is not a health system that is coping.

“More than 67,000 people walked into an Emergency Department and turned around and left without receiving their treatment.

“It’s why NSW Labor will begin the long overdue task of repairing and reforming our health care system across New South Wales.

“We’ll introduce safe staffing levels in NSW hospitals, starting with EDs. It will help with workloads, it will take pressure of nurses and ensure they can treat patients with the care they deserve and need.

“We all pay the price when there aren’t enough staff in our hospitals.”
 
Quotes attributable to Ryan Park, NSW Shadow Minister for Health:

“This data does not paint  a picture of a healthy system.”

“It confirms what we already knew, hospitals across the state and particularly in Western Sydney that are under continued pressure.

“Whether it is Nepean, Westmead or Blacktown, all major hospitals continue to show they are under resourced and struggling to cope with increased demand.”

CHRIS MINNS MP
NSW LABOR LEADER
 
RYAN PARK MP
NSW SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH