NSW: Hospitals meet emergency benchmarks for first time

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2007
NSW: Hospitals meet emergency benchmarks for first time

SYDNEY, Feb 15 AAP - Public hospitals in NSW are meeting national emergency department
benchmarks for the first time in the state's history, NSW Premier Morris Iemma says.

Despite an increase in emergency cases, the state's hospitals were treating emergency
patients inside the national benchmark times across all five triage categories, Mr Iemma
said today.

"There are individual variations with hospitals, some are well above, others below,
but the hospital system as a whole, for the first time in a very long time, has met all
five of the performance indicators," he told reporters.

"That simply means reduced waiting times for patients arriving in emergency departments."

The number of patients waiting more than 12 months for surgery have fallen by 98 per
cent in the 12 months from December 2005, the premier said, from 3,761 to 75.

The total waiting list fell 7.9 per cent to 51,779 over the same period, he said.

The achievements announced today were a result of "more resources, more nurses, more
health professionals and a better system of management", Mr Iemma said.

"If (Opposition Leader Peter) Debnam is elected on March 24, this is the kind of improvement
to services that will never happen because of his plan to cut 20,000 workers from the
very services that families rely on," he said.

AAP dmc/hn/imc/cdh

KEYWORD: POLLNSW HOSPITALS

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