Worst for waiting
GRAFTON Base Hospital has been identified as one of the worst large regional hospitals in Australia in terms of emergency department waiting times.
But the North Coast Area Health says the situation has improved drastically.
The report from the National Health Performance Authority, which monitors how Australia's hospitals are performing against national emergency access targets, was released yesterday.
For large regional hospitals the average percentage of emergency patients who were either moved to another part of the hospital or sent home within four hours was 78%.
Grafton Base Hospital's average was only 61%. Northern NSW Local Health District director Chris Crawford said it was based on old data from 2011. The report says the data is from 2011-12.
Mr Crawford said US emergency department specialist Dr William Cupo was turning the problem around with good leadership.
He said more recent data showed the time people spent waiting at Grafton had improved by as much as 20% in the year.
Facts
- The large regional hospital which returned the shortest waiting time was Albany in Western Australia.
- The hospital with the longest waiting times was Princess Alexandra in Queensland.
- Lismore Base Hospital also returned a result in the bottom 10% of comparable hospitals.
