Reducing ambulance turnaround time at hospitals

This report from the NSW Auditor General's Office concludes that ambulances wait longer in hospital emergency departments today than they have in previous years. This is often because of ambulances being delayed due to beds not being available in the emergency department and paramedics wait with their patient on the ambulance stretcher. The Ministry of Health reports that since 2005-06 emergency department presentations have grown at almost three times the population rate, and ambulance arrivals have grown more, at over four times the population rate.

This audit assessed whether there are effective strategies in place to reduce the time spent by ambulance crews at emergency departments.  The authors found that each day the Ambulance Service loses an average of 18 ambulances on the road due to hospital delays greater than 30 minutes, potentially costing $13.6 million annually to replace. NSW Health has never met its target to offload 90 per cent of ambulance patients in 30 minutes, but results vary between hospitals.  In 2011-12 just over a quarter of NSW hospitals met the off-stretcher target while others who did not have improved their performance. Therefore strategies put in place by some hospitals to reduce delays are working.