Revealed: Dubbo Hospital's 10 year track record

The latest MyHospitals update, revealed on Wednesday, shows how the trend in hospital admissions has fluctuated over the past ten years - from a low of 19,224 hospitalisations in Dubbo between 2013 and 2014, to a peak of 26,462 in 2019 to 2020.

Between 2021 and 2022, the average length of overnight stay at Dubbo Hospital was 2.3 days, down from a high of 2.5 days in 2017 to 2018. This is significantly below the average length of stay of 5.9 days for public hospitals nationwide.

MyHospital tracks the performance of Australia's hospitals - including the number of patients presenting to emergency rooms, wait times for treatment and elective surgery wait times.

Between 2012 and 2013, 83 per cent of patients presenting to Dubbo's emergency room were treated on time compared to only 79 percent between 2021 and 2022.

While the difference is only a few percentage points, the latest number falls well below the peak of 93 per cent between 2016 and 2018. However, it is a slight improvement on the low of 73 per cent in the 2020 to 2021 period.

The percentage of emergency room visitors receiving treatment on time at Dubbo Hospital last year was higher than that in Mudgee (69 per cent), Wellington (76 per cent) and Bathurst (78 per cent) but lower than in Narromine (91 per cent) and Orange (92 per cent).

The Wellington Health Service saw the largest decline in emergency room patients being treated on time from 98 per cent between 2014 and 2015 to 76 percent between 2021 and 2022.

The drop in patients being seen on time in the region's hospitals is in line with decreases across the country. In 2021 to 2022, the proportion of patients seen on time was 67 per cent, down from 71 per cent between 2020 and 2021 and from 72 percent in 2017 to 2018.

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A patient is considered to be "seen on time" when the time between arrival at the emergency department is immediate for resuscitations, within 10 minutes for emergencies, within half an hour for urgent situations, with an hour for semi-urgent situations and within two hours for non-urgent situations.

In 2021 to 2022, there were 16,710 presentations to Dubbo's emergency room for semi-urgent matters, 10,340 for urgent matters, 9,570 for non-urgent matters, 3,227 for emergencies and 95 for resuscitations.

Waiting times for elective surgery also remain at a historic high in Dubbo.

Between 2012 and 2013 patients waited just 253 days for non-urgent elective surgeries, but in 2021 to 2022 patients the median wait time for non-urgent surgeries in Dubbo was one year - or 365 days.

For semi-urgent elective surgeries, the median wait time has climbed from 43 days to 64 days over the past ten years and, for urgent surgeries, it has jumped from 9 days to 15 days.

All the data for Dubbo Hospital and other hospitals in the region can be found through the MyHospitals portal on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare website.

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