More than one in four of the most critically ill or injured patients waited more than 10 minutes for an ambulance, the latest NSW Ambulance data shows.
More than 28 per cent of priority 1A ambulance jobs (P1A) – the most life-threatening category – had a response time over 10 minutes in January to March 2017, according to the latest Bureau of Health Information Quarterly report released on Thursday.
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The "emergency" P1 category covered potentially life-threatening cases, including patients who were unconscious, having an acute heart attack or choking.
P1As are the highest priority case in the P1 category – for instance, patients who are not breathing, in cardiac arrest or unconscious and not responding. Paramedics are expected to be at the scene of a P1A within 10 minutes.
But despite a significant proportion of critical patients waiting over the target time, NSW Ambulance's median response time was far better than the 10-minute benchmark, recording a median response time of 7.5 minutes for P1A call-outs.
For the broader P1 category, the median response time was 11.1 minutes.
The wait times for patients is likely higher than these figures suggest. The "response time" is an internal measurement from when a call for an ambulance is placed in a dispatch "queue" to the time the first ambulance reaches a patient.
But the BHI report also recorded "call to ambulance arrival time", which measured the time from when a triple zero call was answered to when paramedics arrived at the scene. Acting chief executive Dr Kim Sutherland said this measurement better reflected a patient's wait time.
"We were really interested in trying to understand where people are having quite long waits," Dr Sutherland said.
More than one in three emergency category patients (36.8 per cent) waited longer than 15 minutes for an ambulance from the time a triple zero call was answered.
A total of 94.7 per cent of ambulances responding to P1s arrived within half an hour, the report showed.
Across the greater Sydney area, the Nepean Blue Mountains zone recorded the worst "call-to-ambulance" result, with just 55.7 per cent arriving within 15 minutes for emergency cases.
The Sydney zone – encompassing Bondi, Campsie, Concord and Drummoyne – recorded the best response times, with 75.7 per cent of P1 response times within 15 minutes.
But the longest waits were outside of Sydney. In the Hunter Zone 2 – stretching from Singleton to Gloucester – 47.1 per cent of P1 patients waited longer than 15 minutes. In The Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers zones it was just under 47 per cent.
"The latest BHI quarterly report provides us with a vital tool to benchmark our performance in line with the wider health system and provide a more comprehensive picture of emergency health care provision across the state," said NSWA commissioner Dominic Morgan.
There were 277,218 ambulance responses across NSW over the three months period, including 121,162 emergency category cases, up by 1.2 per cent on the same quarter in 2016.
"Despite this increase in demand, response times measured from the point of the initial call through to the paramedic arrival at scene has remained stable for the most urgent priority cases over the past three years," the statement read.
The report also measured ambulance turnaround time, referring to the period paramedics spend at hospital emergency departments; from the time an ambulance arrives with a patient to the time the ambulance is clear and free to respond to another call out.
Just over four in five P1 jobs had a turnaround time within 45 minutes (71.7 per cent). Just over 77.1 per cent of P2 jobs had a turn around time also within the 45 minute timeframe.
Record hospital ED presentations (yet again)break re and elective surgery wait times
Sydney hospitals have once more reported surging numbers of patients coming through their ED doors with a record 654,189 presentations.
"Hospitals have been busy and seen more emergency department patients, more admissions and have performed more elective surgeries than in any other January to March quarter," Dr Sutherland said.
In spite of the rising demand on the state's hospitals ED performance was fairly stable compared ot the same quarter in 2016.
Close to 27 per cent were in the ED longer than the 4-hour benchmark, and one in ten patients (roughly 65,000) were not treated for at least seven hours and seven minutes.
The five NSW hospitals with the highest proportion of patients in the ED for longer than four hours were all in Sydney, with Westmead Hospital topping the list.
Hospitals with highest proportion of patients in the ED for over 4 hours
- Westmead 48.9 per cent
- Liverpool 47.4 per cent
- Blacktown 46.3 per cent
- Campbelltown 44.1 per cent
- Nepean 41.4 per cent
For patients needing elective surgery, over 97 per cent were wheeled into the operating theatres on time over the period, leaving close to 75,000 patients on the elective surgery wait list by March 31, roughly 600 more than the first quarter of 2016.
Labor health spokesman Walt Secord said NSW hospitals, especially EDs were under enormous pressure.
"Sadly, patients wait at every stage in NSW. They wait for an ambulance; they wait outside the emergency department and they wait inside the emergency department. They wait for a bed and then they are discharged early to make room for other patients," Secord said.
On Tuesday the Berejiklian Government announced substantial redevelopements of a slew of NSW Hospitals, including their EDs, including major redevelopments at Prince of Wales, Concord and Campbelltown hospitals in the 2017-2018 budget. Westmead and Nepean hospitals were among several other facilities currently undergoing redevelopments.
"The Liberals and Nationals are promising to fix the health and hospital system with multi-billion upgrades, but then on closer examination, we find that these projects will not be finished until mid-2025 and the allocations are only tiny amounts," Mr Secord said.