Bureau of Health information report indicates Griffith Base Hospital coping well with increased demand

The most recent Bureau of Health information report has captured information from October to December 2021, tracking the activity and performance of emergency departments, elective surgery and admitted patient and ambulance services across the state.

Capturing data from the period following the peak of the Delta COVID-19 variant and the emergence of the Omicron variant, the report indicates that Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) hospitals have at large coped with additional pressures on the system.

"It has been a challenging few years for our staff, but they have shown great strength and resilience," MLHD Chief Executive Jill Ludford said.

"We have used this time as an opportunity to develop innovative ways of delivering the best healthcare to our communities."

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Emergency department attendances at Griffith Base Hospital increased during the October - December 2021 quarter, up by 9.2 percent to 5,721 which is 481 more attendances than in the same quarter for 2020.

More than eight in 10 patients (81 percent) started treatment on time, which is better than the average for hospitals of a similar size (74.7 per cent).

The majority of patients (75.9 percent) were also able to leave the ED within four hours of presentation, ahead of comparable hospitals in NSW (69 percent).

Almost all patients (96.5 percent) were transferred from ambulance paramedics to ED clinicians within the 30-minute benchmark time.

During the October - December 2021 quarter Griffith Base Hospital performed 344 elective surgeries, all of which were performed on time.

"Our surgical teams have worked incredibly hard to ensure that the number of patients on our waiting lists has remained as low as possible, to minimise the impact of any future pauses on non-urgent elective surgery while we deal with new COVID-19 variants and outbreaks," Ms Ludford said.

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Despite the positive results, the hospital still faces severe understaffing, nurses going on strike in February for better pay, better ratios and better working conditions.

Griffith branch secretary Kristy Wilson, who organised Griffith's action, said that the conditions were not just setting nurses back, but affecting patient safety.

"The current state of the hospital is the worst I have ever seen, same with morale. Our cries have fallen on the deaf ears of this government," Mrs Wilson told The Area News at the time.

"We think patient safety is well and truly compromised, we just can't stay silent any longer about what is happening inside our hospitals."

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