The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) has today released its latest Healthcare Quarterly report, showing activity and performance for public health services in NSW during April to June 2025.
There were more elective surgeries performed than in any other quarter since BHI began reporting in 2010, with 64,751 procedures – up 9.6% compared with the same quarter in 2024.
Of those surgeries, 4,033 were contracted to private hospitals – more than double the number from a year earlier (up from 1,927).
The number of patients on the waiting list at the end of June who had waited longer than clinically recommended for their surgery dropped to 2,534, down from 8,588 at the end of March 2025.
Emergency departments saw 785,084 attendances – down 1.3% from the same quarter in 2024.
“Fewer patients with less urgent conditions presented to EDs, however, there were record numbers of patients presenting with more serious conditions,” said BHI Acting Chief Executive Hilary Rowell.
More patients started their treatment on time – up 2.0 percentage points, compared with the same quarter a year earlier, to 65.7% of all patients.
There was an increase in the number of patients arriving to the ED by ambulance – up 1.3% compared with the same time a year earlier.
Despite this, 79.3% of patients who arrived by ambulance were transferred to ED staff within 30 minutes – up 5.6 percentage points compared with the same time in 2024.
There were 376,040 ambulance responses, down 2.4% from the same quarter a year earlier. Of these responses, 11,714 were ‘life threatening (CAT 1)’ and 194,823 were ‘emergency (CAT 2)’.
CAT 1 can include, for example, patients with conditions including cardiac or respiratory arrest, and CAT 2 breathing problems or serious haemorrhage. Both receive emergency ambulance responses under lights and siren.
The median response time for CAT 1 responses was 8.3 minutes – relatively stable when compared with the same quarter a year earlier, and the median response time for CAT 2 responses was 14.5 minutes.
This report also looked at the use of Hospital in the Home across NSW.
“The report shows use of Hospital in the Home continued to grow over the past year, and indicates potential for further uptake,” said Ms Rowell.
There were 9,856 episodes of care delivered through Hospital in the Home – up 2.6% from the same quarter in 2024. Eight local health districts expanded their use of Hospital in the Home compared with the same quarter in 2024, with the largest increase in Central Coast Local Health District.
