Griffith Base Hospital Delivers Quality Care

The latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) Healthcare Quarterly report shows hospitals in Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) continued to deliver high-quality care throughout the July to September 2022 quarter.

Respiratory illnesses continued to circulate in the community, resulting in an increase in complex presentations to emergency departments (EDs) and admissions to hospitals.

There were 5,812 emergency department attendances at Griffith Base Hospital in the July to September 2022 quarter.

More than seven in ten patients (74.2 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size (66.3 per cent).

Almost nine in ten patients (89.9 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark time, also above the average for similarly sized hospitals in NSW (82.1 per cent).

More than two thirds of patients (67.8 per cent) were able to leave the ED within four hours, also ahead of comparable hospitals in NSW (60.9 per cent).

During the July to September 2022 quarter, there were 281 elective surgeries performed at Griffith Base Hospital, with all urgent and semi-urgent electives (100 per cent) performed on time.

The hospital also delivered 135 babies throughout the quarter.

MLHD Chief Executive, Ms Jill Ludford thanked staff for their hard work throughout this period of high activity.

“Following on from the peak of the Omicron outbreak, the onset of winter brought further challenges, impacting our communities and our workforce,” Ms Ludford said.

“Despite this, our emergency departments continued to provide care within timeframes well above the state average, and our ambulance transfer of care times are among the best in the state for this quarter.

“I thank our highly skilled and dedicated workforce.

“These results are a testament to their hard work.” There were 36,767 emergency department attendances across the District from July to September 2022.

“Of these, 19,161 attendances were for non-critical conditions including 13,995 Triage Category 4 (Semi-Urgent) and 5,166 Triage Category 5 (Non-urgent).

More than eight in ten (81.8 per cent) started treatment on time, which is better than the state average of 65.6 per cent.

The percentage of patients transferred within the 30-minute benchmark time from paramedics to ED staff was 83.5 per cent - also better than the state average of 74.8 per cent.

The majority of patients (71.7 per cent) were able to leave the ED within four hours, also better than the state average (57.4 per cent).

MLHD continues to work hard to reduce elective surgery wait times, which have been impacted by necessary pauses on non-urgent procedures throughout the pandemic.

MLHD completed 1,940 elective surgeries in the quarter, with all urgent elective surgeries (100 per cent) performed on time.

MLHD continues its surgical recovery plan with 187 more elective procedures performed in July to September, than in the preceding April to June quarter (1,753).

“I thank the community for their patience during this challenging time and can assure everyone our District is continuing to work hard to carry out those procedures that were postponed during the COVID waves,” Ms Ludford said.

“Patients due to receive non-urgent elective surgery who have been impacted by the restrictions are encouraged to seek medical attention should they experience a change in their condition so they can be clinically reviewed and reprioritised to a more urgent category if required.”

The 2022-23 budget for MLHD is nearly $728 million, an increase of more than $29 million, or 4.2 per cent more, than the previous year’s budget.

Between mid-2012 and mid-2022, MLHD increased its workforce by an additional 680 full-time equivalent staff - an increase of 42.9 per cent including 64 more doctors, 326 more nurses and midwives and 111 more allied health staff.

The NSW Government is investing a record $33 billion in health as part of the 2022-23 NSW Budget, including almost $900 million for the ongoing COVID-19 response.

The State Government has also announced the largest workforce boost in the nation’s history in the 2022-23 Budget with a $4.5 billion investment over four years for 10,148 full-time equivalent staff to hospitals and health services across the NSW.

In addition, the NSW Government is also incentivising hard-to-fill, critical roles in hospitals and health facilities with an $883 million investment targeted at recruiting and retaining staff in regional, rural and remote areas.

• Topics:

• Health & Wellbeing