Message FROM the acting Chief executive Dr Tamsin Waterhouse
message FROM the Chief executive Deb Willcox
Our district is full of talented, passionate people across a range of fields – so it was fantastic to see some of them acknowledged as part of this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. The district had six honourees for services to medicine, health and research; a testament to the phenomenal work that goes on every day. I would like to extend my congratulations to Professor Rob Baxter AM, Professor Simon Finfer AO, Dr David Fahey AM, Dr Jennifer Martin OAM, Dr Tony Joseph AM and Professor Georgina Long AO on their honour. Our patients, staff and community are incredibly fortunate for your services to your field. The work you are doing has a great impact on the quality of life of many Australians. You can read more about their achievements on pages 4 and 5 of NSLHD News. A recent survey of patients who have attended our COVID-19 clinics has shown some outstanding results. More than 91 per cent of responding patients gave the care they received in the clinic five stars out of five, with the remaining nine per cent awarding four stars out of five. These results reflect the dedication and commitment of our clinic staff to making sure our community received the very best care at what can be a stressful time. Our community’s experience at our clinics is so important so we maintain high levels of testing in our community. This year has been a challenge for many of us, not only professionally but personally. From the recent bushfires that devastated our rural communities to the COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted our hospitals and everyone in our community. Despite these events, we have continued to provide excellent patient care and support in the face of adversity.
released its quarterly report for our emergency department and elective surgery performance and I was proud to see our hospitals continued to perform well. Emergency Department attendances rose across the district by more than 3700 patients, but more than 81 per cent of our patients started their treatment on time. The biggest growth came from the triage five category or non-urgent patients, with a 63 per cent increase in the number of presentations to ED. More than 94 per cent of these patients started their treatment on time despite the increase. Our transfer of care performance as a district was also stellar, with 94.8 per cent of our patients having their care transferred from ambulance to emergency department staff within 30 minutes. Results for elective surgery were impacted due to the necessary suspension of surgery nationwide in March as we responded to COVID-19. NSW Health will soon host a roundtable with the public and private health service and clinicians to determine what additional measures the health system can employ to improve access to care for our community. I want to commend all of our wait list teams, surgical and nursing staff who have been working together to ensure as a district we ensure all patients get timely access to their surgery. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who have worked tremendously hard so far this year. Our community is incredibly fortunate to have your dedication and service.
Deb Willcox Chief Executive Northern Sydney Local Health District
The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) recently
2 NSLHDNEWS | ISSUE 11| 19 JUNE 2020
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