However the number of patients in the most urgent triage category needing resuscitation, more than doubled from 20 to 49, according to data from the Bureau of Health Information Report for January to March 2020.
The number of presentations in the second most urgent category, Triage 2 (Emergency), also jumped by 18.6 per cent, but Auburn Hospital recorded only a relatively minor rise of 13.2 per cent in Triage 5 (non-urgent) presentations.
This is in contrast to BHI data which showed a sharp spike in T5 presentations at a number of other NSW hospitals, particularly in March.
Westmead and Auburn hospitals general manager Rebecca Tyson said 63.3 per cent of the 7,692 patients who presented to Auburn’s ED, started treatment on time, a significant improvement of 13.7 per cent, and the median time spent in ED improved by 30 minutes.
“This improvement was primarily achieved through a pilot of a new ED triage model of care to ensure more acute patients begin their treatment with a doctor or nurse practitioner immediately after triage,” she said.
While 1,540 people remain on the waiting list for elective surgery at the end of the quarter, Ms Tyson said Auburn Hospital was also on track to continue to meet emergency and urgent surgical targets.
“The hospital performed 677 elective surgery procedures in the quarter, 88 more than the same period the previous year, and 97.3 per cent of all procedures were done on time including 100 per cent of urgent procedures,” she said.
Less waiting in hospital emergency
FLYING in the face of the outbreak of Covid-19 in March, the Emergency Department (ED) at Auburn Hospital was only slightly busier in the first three months of this year, compared with 2019.
