Patience of patients still being tested

Wollongong Hospital’s emergency department is among the worst in the state for ambulance patient waiting time, according to figures from the NSW Ambulance Service.

In the year 2006-07, critical P1 category patients had to wait a combined one million minutes, or 718 days, before bring admitted to NSW public hospital emergency departments.

Wollongong Hospital was among the worst five when it came to waiting times.

Director of Nursing at Wollongong Hospital, Suzanne Harris, said the delays were mainly due to an increased number of emergency patients, and the inability to divert ambulances.

“The biggest problem is the number of ambulances presenting has increased significantly in the last few years, and particularly in the last 12 months,” she said.

“We don’t have a large emergency department and we don’t have the ability to divert ambulances. In Sydney, they have the Matrix system, where, by analysing historical data they can work out how many ambulance patients can be seen in an hour.

When they reach that number, they can divert ambulances to other hospitals in Sydney.

“At Wollongong there’s been a steady increase in patients, and there’s no safety valve like Sydney under the Matrix system.”

Ms Harris said she was not sure what the cause of the increase was, but suggested some patients, particularly the elderly, arrived at the hospital in ambulances when they had no other way of getting there.

While Ms Harris acknowledged some patients had to wait, she said those in the worst condition were admitted straight away.

While the figures from the Ambulance Service related to critical P1 category patients, Ms Harris said patients were re-assessed when they reached the emergency department and divided into a number of triage categories.

She said the hospital had implemented a number of initiatives during the last few years aimed at cutting patient waiting times.