THE median wait time for non-urgent elective surgeries at John Hunter Hospital has increased by almost three months since 2019-20, new data shows.
The latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare MyHospitals report highlights the impact of the pandemic on hospital admissions in 2020-21.
It shows the average wait time for non-urgent surgeries at John Hunter Hospital rose to 289 days in 2020-21, up from 204 days in 2019-20. While the median wait time for semi-urgent surgeries at the hospital also rose by 10 days, it remained steady at eight days for "urgent" elective surgeries.
The latest update found there were 11.8 million hospitalisations in Australia in 2020-21, up from 11.1 million in 2019-20.
The report also included information on people hospitalised with a diagnosis of COVID-19 across the country, finding that about 40 per cent of those admitted to hospital had one or more co-morbidities such as type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
"Of the 4,700 hospitalised patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis, 329 (7 per cent) involved a stay in an Intensive Care Unit, 180 (3.8 per cent) required ventilation, and 487 (10.3 per cent) died in hospital," AIHW spokesperson, Dr Adrian Webster, said.
"Two-thirds - 66 per cent - of these hospitalisations were for people aged 45 or older and 4.4 per cent were for children aged 0-14."
In Hunter New England hospitals, the number of people presenting to emergency departments (EDs) increased across all urgency categories in 2020-21. There were more than 450,100 presentations to hospitals across the district, with the percentage of patients leaving the ED within four hours dropping to 69 per cent, down from 73 per cent on the year prior.
The John Hunter Hospital generally managed its emergency wait times better than its peers at other major hospitals, with 85 per cent of people presenting to ED starting treatment within recommended times.
But the data showed that more than 20.5 per cent of patients requiring orthopaedic surgery at John Hunter Hospital waited more than a year for their elective procedures.
More than 14 per cent of patients requiring ear, nose and throat surgery also waited longer than 365 days.
The hospital performed 3,214 urgent elective surgeries in 2020-21, 2,091 semi-urgent surgeries, and 3,041 non-urgent surgeries.
The median wait time for non-urgent surgeries at Maitland Hospital rose by 48 days; by two days for urgent surgeries, and six days for semi-urgent procedures in 2020-21. Across the region, the percentage of patients who received "non-urgent" elective surgery within a clinically recommended time dropped to 74 per cent in 2020-21, down from 96 per cent in 2019-20.
The percentage of patients who received semi-urgent surgery on time also dropped to 85 per cent, from 97 per cent in 2019-20.
But 100 per cent of urgent surgeries in the district were performed within clinically recommended times.
