The NSW health minister says the state is regarded as the "most outstanding and leading" when it comes to processing emergency patients, despite the system recently being described as "basically third world".
Outgoing Health Minister Brad Hazzard rejected the assertion that ambulance ramping and access block had become a "regular occurrence" during a budget estimates hearing on Thursday.
The claim was made during last month's inquiry into ambulance ramping and a pair of emergency doctors also described conditions in western Sydney hospitals as "basically third world".
"Every health system is working under pressure right across the world," Mr Hazzard told a budget estimates hearing on Thursday.
He recently talked with another emergency specialist, who described some doctors triaging outside the hospital in the ambulance.
"There are different ways of doing things," he said.
"When I've met with all of the other Labor, and one Liberal minister now, around the country, they all acknowledge that NSW is the most outstanding and leading in regard to the issue that you're raising."
Mr Hazzard insisted it was easy to find aggrieved doctors within the NSW health system because of its sheer size.
"You can always, in a system as big as NSW, pretend that it's a disaster.
"No, it's not. It is absolutely not. It's actually doing extraordinarily well."
Last month emergency doctors Pramod Chandru and James Tadros told the parliamentary inquiry of their frustrations working in public hospitals in western Sydney.
Dr Tadros read a text exchange between him and his colleague that described the system as "basically third world".
They were discussing an 88-year-old woman with terminal cancer who was left for 12 hours in an ED before getting a bed.
Mr Hazzard has been the state's health minister for the past six years, and steered NSW through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 71-year-old ended speculation about his future on Monday, announcing he will leave politics at the election.
He is the 12th NSW coalition MP to exit at the March poll, leaving Premier Dominic Perrottet with a growing list of spots to fill.
