Griffith Base Hospital Performs Well In Quarterly Report

Griffith Base Hospital has continued to perform more planned surgeries and to deliver high-quality, timely emergency care to the community.

The latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) Healthcare Quarterly Report - October to December 2023 - shows the public hospitals in Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) had performed well.

MLHD Chief Executive Jill Ludford thanked staff for their hard work throughout the period, with improvements in planned surgery wait times and excellent results in several emergency department (ED) key performance indicators, despite high demand for emergency care.

“Our District continues to work hard to ensure patients receive their planned surgery as soon as possible after non-urgent procedures were temporarily postponed during the COVID pandemic,” Ms Ludford said.

There were 5,917 emergency department attendances at Griffith Base Hospital in the quarter from October to December 2023, which is consistent with the same period in 2022. (5,955)

Across the MLHD, during the same period, the total number of planned surgeries performed was 2,222, an increase of 14.8 per cent, or 286 more procedures, compared with the same quarter in 2022.

All urgent planned surgeries were performed on time.

“Our surgical recovery plan has resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of patients waiting longer than recommended for their planned surgery, down from 788 at the end of December 2022, to 92 at the end of December 2023, a reduction of nearly 88.3 per cent,” Ms Ludford said.

“I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary effort of our surgical teams and thank our patients for their patience during this challenging time.

“Patients who are waiting for planned surgery who feel their condition may have changed are encouraged to contact their treating doctor who can review their condition and place them in a higher urgency category if appropriate.”

More than eight in 10 patients (83.1 per cent) started treatment on time, an improvement of 7.4 percentage points compared to the same quarter in 2022 and better than the average for hospitals of a similar size in NSW (70.7 per cent).

Almost all patients (95.5 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark time, better than the average for hospitals of similar size in NSW (89.6 per cent).

The majority of patients (76.2 per cent) were able to leave the ED within four hours, better than the average for hospitals of similar size in the State (63.2 per cent).

During the October to December 2023 quarter at Griffith Base Hospital there were 252 planned surgeries performed, with all urgent surgeries (100 per cent) performed on time.

Throughout the quarter, 123 babies were born at Griffith Base Hospital.

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