Fewer patients are visiting emergency departments across the Southern NSW Local Health District.
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Figures released by the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) showed a decrease of 26.1 per cent of patient presentation to emergency departments between April to June 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
This decrease in patients attending an emergency department is reflected across the state, chief executive of the health district, Margaret Bennett said. She added, it is partly attributable to Covid-19 restrictions and stay-home orders.
More than 21,500 people presented to the district's emergency departments, and 11,164 Covid-19 tests were administered.
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At Goulburn Base Hospital, there were 3744 emergency presentations, a decrease of 22.9pc from the previous year. The urgent (triage 3) and semi-urgent (triage 4) categories were down, 18.6pc and 23pc respectively. All triage categories were down at Goulburn Base Hospital.
There was a decrease of 9.7pc of patients arriving by ambulance.
However, 76.3pc of patients left the emergency department within four hours slightly up on the state average of 75.3pc.
"The most urgent patients in our emergency departments were treated more quickly," Ms Bennett said.
"All our staff are doing a wonderful job providing the best quality patient care during this unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, the district performed better than the statewide results, with urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent surgery procedures all performing ahead of the state average."
In March, the National Cabinet suspended all non-urgent elective surgery before a staged resumption of surgical activity in late April.
The number of elective surgery procedures performed at Goulburn Base Hospital from April to June 2020 was 259, down 145 (35.9pc) compared with the same quarter last year.
"Importantly, 100pc of urgent surgeries were performed on time," Ms Bennett said.
Across the state, the NSW Government will spend another $800 million on top of the 2019-20 health budget to help boost ICU capacity and purchase additional services and medical equipment, to help respond to Covid-19.
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