THE number of patients presenting at Bathurst Health Service between April and June fell almost 30 per cent in 2020, compared to the previous year, according to new figures released by the Bureau of Health Information (BHI).
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Emergency presentations at Bathurst Health Service fell from 7,260 for the quarter from April to June 2019, to 5,090 for the same period this year.
Emergency presentations to the Bathurst Health Service weren't the only figures to fall.
Arrivals at the emergency department by ambulance fell by over 17 per cent, from 1,212 cases from April to June 2019, to 1,003 for the same period in 2020.
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Significantly the number of urgent and semi-urgent patients also fell; with almost 500, or 21.4 per cent fewer urgent cases presenting to the hospital in the 2020 quarter compared to 2019.
Semi-urgent cases fell a staggering 1,482 cases, or 40.9 per cent for the 2020 quarter compared to 2019.
Emergency department attendances remained relatively stable, with 7,341 cases logged for the 2019 quarter compared to 7,467 for the same same period this year.
However, while presentations to the emergency department fell, patient admissions into the hospital from the emergency department increased.
From April - June 2019 1,537 patients were admitted from emergency to the hospital, for the same period this year that figure jumped by 185 patients to 1,722.
Looking at emergency department performance Bathurst Health Service's median time to treatment improved dramatically for the 2020 quarter compared to the 2019 quarter.
The median time to treatment for the 2019 quarter was seven minutes, which dropped to five minutes for the 2020 quarter.
Between April and June 2020 Bathurst Health Service's 90th percentile time for emergency patients to treatment was 25 minutes, compared to 52 for the previous quarter.
For urgent patients the median treatment time for the 2020 quarter dropped to eight minutes from 17 minutes, for the same period in 2019.
For semi-urgent patients the time to treatment was halved, from 16 minutes for the 2019 quarter to eight minutes for the 2020 quarter. For non-urgent cases the median time for treatment fell from 11 minutes in 2019 to seven in 2020.