THERE'S some good news to be found in the latest data on major health services in the Central West, with more people now starting treatment on time after presenting to the emergency department.
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The information was made available with the release of the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) quarterly healthcare report on Wednesday, June 7.
BHI's new report is based on data recorded across public health services in NSW from the start of January, 2023 to the end of March, 2023.
The state recorded 770,089 emergency department attendances during that time, which was the highest of any January to March quarter since BHI began reporting in 2010.
Dubbo Hospital and Orange Health Service both saw increases in emergency department attendances compared with the same quarter in 2022, with these health services seeing 9913 and 7681 attendances respectively.
That was an increase of an increase of 4.4 per cent for Dubbo and 1.4 per cent for Orange.
In Bathurst, however, there was a 5.2 per cent decrease in the number of attendances compared with the January to March quarter in 2022, with 6367 recorded in the first three months of 2023.
Starting treatment on time
The BHI also provided data regarding patients starting treatment on time after attending the emergency department.
While there was a decline in the percentage of patients being seen on time at Bathurst Health Service compared with the same period in 2022, it was only minor - 0.1 percentage points - and there were some positive signs of improvement when comparing the data with the previous quarter.
Between October and December, 2022, the percentage of patients starting treatment on time was 68.7 per cent, but from January to March, 2023 the percentage was 77 per cent.
The news was not as good for Dubbo Hospital, with its percentage of patients starting treatment on time decreasing 10.5 percentage points to 74.3 per cent from January to March, 2023 compared with the same quarter of 2022.
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However, 74.3 per cent was similar to the figure from October to December, 2022, which was 74.5 per cent.
Orange Health Service had the best percentage of the three major hospitals in the Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD), with a 81.4 per cent of patients starting treatment on time from January to March, 2023.
This was down by 0.5 percentage points from the same period in 2022, and up eight percentage points from the last quarter of 2022.
The WNSWLHD has been contacted for comment about the data.
How quickly ambulances responded
Ambulance response times were also part of the latest quarterly report.
BHI chief executive Dr Diane Watson said there had been improvement in response times across NSW.
"Despite the increasing demand, ambulance response performance has continued to improve following record long response times in mid-2022," she said.
Out of the three major Central West areas, Dubbo had the most ambulance responses, 4785, while Orange had 3150 and Bathurst had 2557.
All saw increases compared with the January to March quarter of 2022.
Across NSW, the median response time of ambulances to incidents of the highest priority was eight minutes.
Bathurst and Orange both had median response times of eight minutes, while Dubbo was slightly faster at seven minutes.
For emergencies, Dubbo, Bathurst and Orange were all faster than the state median of 14 minutes, with their response time being 11, 12 and 13 minutes respectively.
Each area improved their median response time by one minute compared with the same quarter in 2022.
For urgent priority situations, the median response time in Bathurst and Orange was 18 minutes, and they were again bested by Dubbo, with its response time of 17 minutes.
Seventeen minutes was actually a decrease of two minutes compared with the same quarter in 2022, while Bathurst and Orange's urgent median response time was unchanged.
All three centres were ahead of the state median response time of 25 minutes.
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