Lismore Base Hospital, along with Ballina, Byron, Casino and Maclean hospitals recorded an increase of close to, or more than 10% in Emergency Department (ED) presentations in the April to June quarter this year. 

These figures from the latest Bureau of Health Information Quarterly Report compare the 2019 quarter to the same quarter in 2018.

Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD) clinical operations director Lynne Weir said the district was seeing “near record activity in our emergency departments”.

“More than 52,000 people in total presented to Northern NSW Local Health District Emergency Departments in this quarter,” Ms Weir said.

"An early and long flu season has been a contributing factor to ED presentations, with over 245,000 patients presenting to hospitals around the state for respiratory presentations this year, far above recent years.

"While our emergency departments will always treat any patient who presents, we encourage residents to think about the most appropriate place to seek care for less serious illnesses.

"Patients presenting to emergency departments are always prioritised to treat the most serious cases first.

"Where appropriate, people can visit their General Practitioner, or call HealthDirect on 1800 022 222 for expert health advice 24 hours a day.

“Despite this significant increase in activity, emergency treatment performance remained strong and our hospitals are still performing at very high levels when it comes to providing patients with quality and timely care.”

Ms Weir said despite rising demand, the average length of stay in hospital remained stable at 2.5 days.

“Thanks to the excellent, efficient care provided by our staff, patients are being discharged back to their own homes or into community care to continue their recovery where they’re most comfortable,” she said.

“I’d like to congratulate the whole Northern NSW team for their hard work and education.”

This April-June quarter saw a 7.3% increase in ED presentations, up by 3,576 people on the same quarter last year, as well as an 8.3% increase in the number of ambulance arrivals.

“The median time for patients leaving our EDs this quarter was just under two hours, well below the state average of two hours and 53 minutes,” Ms Weir said.

Elective Surgery Performance

Despite the continuing high activity, the number of elective surgeries performed remained stable.

“I am proud to say that 100% of urgent elective surgery procedures were performed on time, as were 92% of semi-urgent procedures,” Ms Weir said.

“However, we also recognise elective surgery is affected by our high activity in the system and we’re working with clinicians and management to improve waiting times.”

Seclusion and Restraint

NNSWLHD is committed to reducing and where possible, eliminating seclusion and restraint, and providing the best possible mental health care and treatment in the least restrictive environment.

Seclusion and restraint are used to maintain safety for a patient, staff or others, after less restrictive alternatives have been trialled or considered.

The District is continuing to implement actions from the NSW Health Mental Health Safety and Quality in NSW: A plan to implement the recommendations of the Review of seclusion, restraint and observation of consumers with a mental illness in NSW Health facilities.

The introduction of new strategies have already shown positive results in this quarterly report.

Both Lismore and Tweed Mental Health Units were below the performance indicator for seclusion rates in the April-June quarter. The state-based KPI for rate of seclusion in 2018-19 is less than 5.1 per 1,000 bed days.

“I’d like to acknowledge the significant work our teams have been doing to reduce seclusion rates for patients in their care, which is leading to better experiences for our patients,” Ms Weir said.

Lismore recorded a halving of the total number of seclusion events compared to the same quarter in 2018, with an overall rate of four per 1,000 bed days.

The average seclusion time for patients in Lismore also decreased significantly, down 28 minutes for an average duration of 2 hours and 13 minutes, well below the NSW Health target of less than four hours.

Tweed recorded a seclusion rate of 4.6 per 1,000 bed days, and a reduction of 29 minutes in the average duration of seclusion events, down to two hours and 42 minutes

Some initiatives implemented over the past 18 months to improve patient care include supporting nurses to spend more time engaging therapeutically with mental health patients; and a significant uptake among staff completing therapeutic relationship.