Latest health service data shows the new Maitland Hospital emergency department continues to perform poorly compared with other hospitals across NSW.
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The Bureau of Health Information published figures on Wednesday showing Maitland and John Hunter hospitals took longer to treat emergency patients than the NSW average in the December 2022 quarter.
Maitland treated only 49.2 per cent of emergency patients within a benchmark time, up from 43.3 per cent in June 2022 but well below the NSW average of 66.4 per cent and down from 60.4 per cent in December 2019.
Nurses and midwives staged a walkout at Maitland Hospital in August over staffing levels, and a meeting of the hospital staff council last year heard warnings from doctors that "bed capacity, lack of critical-care units, unopened wards and ICU functional level are all crisis situations".
The medical staff council at John Hunter Hospital heard similar warnings from doctors last year.
Hunter New England Health chief executive Michael DiRienzo resigned nine days ago after his relationship with the health service's executive team became strained.
The new BHI figures show John Hunter treated 59.5 per cent of emergency patients on time, down from 75.8 per cent in 2019.
Most major NSW hospitals have started treating more patients on time since June, but the John Hunter slipped slightly in this performance metric at the end of 2022.
HNEH acting chief executive Tracey McCosker said the health district's performance had remained "steady" in the December quarter despite record demand for high-level emergency care.
"The district saw 114,904 attendances to emergency departments, the fourth highest number on record since BHI reporting began in 2010," she said.
"We also saw increased numbers of patients with an imminently life-threatening condition.
"Of the almost 115,000 attendances to our EDs, 14,719 were in triage category two, which is a record high."
The health district performed slightly better than the state average of 78 per cent on transferring patients from ambulance to emergency department within a 30-minute benchmark.
"We aim to see every patient as quickly as possible, but the most seriously unwell patients are always treated first and those with less urgent conditions may face a wait, especially in busier times," Ms McCosker said.
"We thank the community for their patience and apologise to those who have waited longer than usual in the ED during this period of high activity.
"We recognise more work is needed and will consider strategies to improve some of these challenges."
The BHI figures show more than 19 per cent of patients walked out of the Maitland emergency department without or before completing treatment in December 2022, easily the worst performance among similar-sized hospitals in the state.
By comparison, fewer than 9 per cent of ED patients left Campbelltown Hospital without treatment and 11.2 per cent walked out at John Hunter.
More people walked out of the Maitland ED than at John Hunter, even though the Rankin Park hospital received 9000 more patients than Maitland in the last three months of 2022.
The 2481 patients who quit the John Hunter without or before completing treatment was the most on record for a December quarter at the hospital and more than double the 1197 who walked out in the corresponding period in pre-COVID 2019.
Only a third of patients left the Maitland ED in four hours, compared with 54.1 per cent in similar hospitals and 58.4 per cent across all state hospitals.
The performance of NSW hospitals across a wide range of metrics has dropped since pre-COVID times.
Like many hospitals in the state, John Hunter's elective surgery performance is now significantly worse than in 2019, though waiting lists have improved slightly.
John Hunter performed 80.4 per cent of elective surgeries on time in the December quarter, better than the NSW average of 76.6 per cent but way down on the 99 per cent rate before COVID.
Maitland performed only 69.9 per cent of elective surgeries on time.
The median waiting time for non-urgent surgery at John Hunter was 317 days, up from 198 days in 2019.
The median waiting time for semi-urgent surgery was 65 days, the longest on record and up from 43 in 2019.
The hospital reported performing 100 per cent of urgent elective surgery on time.
The number of patients waiting longer than the recommended time for elective surgery was 576, up from 35 in 2019 but similar to the overdue lists at Wollongong and other large hospitals in NSW.
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Michael Parris
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
