Port Macquarie Hospital Fails to Treat 55% of Patients on Time

09 September 2009

Duty Member for Port Macquarie Melinda Pavey said today that the recently released NSW Health Performance Report reveals that Port Macquarie Emergency Department performance is one of the worst in the state, with a massive 55 per cent of patients in potentially life threatening cases being unable to be treated on time.

The report released online today for the period between April to June 2009, reveals that the Emergency Department at Port Macquarie Base Hospital failed to treat the following patients in time :

· 29 per cent in the imminently life threatening category;
· 39 per cent in the potentially serious category and;
· 55 per cent of patients in the potentially life threatening category.

“The failure to meet Australian emergency treatment targets at Port Macquarie Hospital is a result of the NSW Labor Government’s failure to fund the full expansion of the hospital, including the fourth pod,” Mrs Pavey said.

“The abysmal $1.3 million allocated for the Emergency Department upgrade that is currently underway, is simply not enough to be able to deal with these shocking performance figures.

“These figures paint a picture of a hospital system that will continue to struggle well beyond the completion of the upgrade, and the incompetent Rees Labor Government can no longer ignore this given the current life threatening situations that have occurred.

“These figures demonstrate even more the need for the long over due hospital expansion and fourth pod.

“Given that the recently released FOI documents prove that the Emergency Department upgrade is a interim measure until the funding for the fourth pod becomes available, the failing NSW Labor Government must now come clean and make the commitment.

“What makes matters worse is that in the context of these damning figures, NSW Labor is still pushing forward with the 400 Full Time Equivalent job cuts across the North Coast Area Health Service.

“This demonstrates how badly the Rees Labor Government has their wrong priorities wrong.

“The hard working staff are now chronically overworked and are unable to meet these standards with the limited resources that they have.
“Instead of more scandals and infighting, Nathan Rees should be focusing on fixing our hospitals,” Mrs Pavey said.