Image: Hospital staff at a rally in May, 2023. Photo: NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association/Facebook.
By ROBBIE MASON
According to new data, the state’s health sector is struggling to bounce back from the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public hospital admission numbers, wait times in emergency rooms in NSW and the length of overnight stays are ballooning, quarterly data from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) indicates.
Between April and June this year, 1 in 10 patients spent over 11 hours in an emergency department – the highest proportion of patients since the BHI began reporting on the NSW health system in 2010.
Workloads for nurses and midwives have intensified in recent months. The report shows that patient admission numbers have increased, compared to the level seen at this time last year, and the number of babies being born in NSW hospitals is also on the rise.
NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) General Secretary Shaye Candish said that alleviating the pressures on staff who are trying to administer emergency care is well overdue. The union has demand safe staffing ratios across the state’s health system.
“We desperately need our metropolitan and regional hospitals to be staffed with the right number of skilled emergency nurses on each shift. Until the government tackles these issues, fills the widespread staffing vacancies and improves working conditions, our members will be under strain,” Candish stated.
NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Michael Whaites, said, “investment is needed in our skilled nursing workforce, which is still suffering from widespread burnout and fatigue.”
Ambulance activity is at the highest level on record, raising questions around the ability of NSW’s paramedic workforce to meet demand. Paramedics responded to 357,491 incidents in the last quarter. 177, 549 of those ambulance responses were for life-threatening emergencies.
A spokesperson from the Health Services Union said, “NSW has a major problem attracting and retaining paramedics because we simply don’t pay them what they are worth. Over the last decade the skills and contribution of our paramedics has leapt forward while their wages have stayed flat.”
“It’s no wonder they are drawn to Canberra and Queensland where they can earn substantially more and enjoy a lower cost of living,” the spokesperson continued.
BHI has also released the latest results of the Adult Admitted Patient Survey, which draws on the experiences of 20,000 people admitted as patients in NSW public hospitals in 2022.
The results are largely positive, although most performance results are lower than in 2021.
BHI Chief Executive Dr Diane Watson said, “it is pleasing to see that most patients were positive about their experiences during their hospital stay.”
When asked about hospital treatment, a percentage of patients who sought care at Bankstown-Lidcombe, Campbelltown and Wollongong hospitals rated their experience significantly lower than the NSW average.
