THE pressure of this year's double-whammy - a heavy flu season combined with the Omicron outbreak of COVID-19 - is being blamed for record numbers of people leaving emergency departments without, or before completing treatment, longer ambulance wait times and delayed surgeries.
The latest data from the Bureau of Health Information reveals that 13,700 people left emergency departments across the Hunter New England District last quarter without, or before completing treatment, a 40 per cent increase (3957 presentations) on the same quarter last year.
It is more than double the number of people who abandoned care at emergency departments across the region in 2019, when the figure was 6189.
The number of patients treated 'on time' dropped to 59.7 per cent of presentations at the John Hunter's emergency department, and down to 43.3 per cent at Maitland, a decrease of 16.2 per cent.
Patients are also waiting longer than ever for an ambulance, with paramedics getting to only one third of emergency cases within target timeframes across the state, according to the president of the NSW Australian Paramedics Association Chris Kastelan.
"We're alarmed that response times are growing longer every quarter. The data shows very clearly that we're falling behind, but our government is yet to take this seriously as a priority concern," he said.
The data shows that fewer than half the patients rated an "emergency" and "urgent" received an ambulance on time, at 35 per cent and 46 per cent of those receiving a response within their respective 15 and 30 minute benchmark timeframes, he said.
"For the highest priority .. life-threatening cases, just 57.6 per cent received a response within 10 minutes," he said.
Hunter New England Local Health District chief executive Michael Di Rienzo said the second quarter of 2022 presented serious challenges with respect to complex presentations and admissions, as well as significant staff unavailability as staff contracted, or were exposed to respiratory illnesses.
"I appreciate it's been a challenging couple of months for our staff and thank them for their continued hard work as they provide quality and compassionate care for then communities across our district," he said. "Pleasingly, our facilities have performed above average across several categories including time to start treatment, surgeries performed on time and transfer of care."
In the April to June 2022 quarter, there were 116,029 attendances at HNELHD emergency departments, with the majority of patients (64.9 per cent) starting treatment on time, he said. Almost eight in 10 patients, or 79.2 per cent, were transferred from ambulance to hospital staff within the 30-minute benchmark - also better than the NSW average, of 72.5 per cent, Mr Di Rienzo said.
BHI Acting Chief Executive Hilary Rowell said patients typically waited longer for hospital and ambulance services as activity remained at historically high levels across most parts of the system.
There were 793,987 emergency department (ED) attendances, up 5.2 per cent compared with April to June 2019, but short of the record high in April to June 2021.
Around six in 10 patients (62.8 per cent) were seen on time, the lowest of any quarter since BHI began reporting in 2010. The number of patients who left without, or before completing treatment (76,117) was up 67.6 per cent when compared with 2019 and the highest on record. This includes patients who were triaged but left the ED before treatment began, and patients who began treatment but left before it was completed.
"Our additional analysis shows that one in five patients who leave without, or before completing treatment, tend to re-present to an ED within three days," Ms Rowell said.
Of those patients who arrived at an ED by ambulance, 72.5 per cent had their care transferred to ED staff within 30 minutes.
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