Hunter New England Health (HNEH) has released figures for March which indicate that the hospital’s emergency department has seen a 20 percent increase in patients compared with March last year.

The figures show that in March 428 people were treated in the local emergency department. The presentation of patients averaged about 11 per weekday and 30 a day on the weekend.

Glen Innes and District Hospital has exceeded the state benchmark in all five triage categories for the month of March recording 100 percent treatment rates across the board. The triage system is used by the emergency departments to prioritise patients according to the urgency of care they require. The patient is assessed by a triage nurse upon presentation to the department and triage categories are based on the urgency of a patient and an expected time in which it is considered reasonable for them to be treated.

The triage one category is care within two minutes for immediately life threatening cases, which requires a 100 per cent treatment rate to meet the state benchmark. Triage two, for imminently life threatening cases requires an 80 per cent treatment rate within 10 minutes; triage three, potentially life threatening, 75 per cent treated within 30 minutes; while triage four of one hour potentially serious and triage five of two hours for less urgent cased, both require a 70 per cent treatment rate to meet the state benchmark.

“The Glen Innes staff provide an invaluable service to the community 24 hours a day, every day of the year,” Glen Innes Health Service Manager Cathryn Jones said. “We are incredibly proud of the dedicated nursing and medical staff who have worked consistently hard to meet all state benchmarks for triage.”

Ms Jones said that Glen Innes and District Hospital currently has six local general practitioners who operate as visiting medical officers and provide emergency cover Monday to Friday. One of these doctors also serve as a ‘second on-call’ doctor for the emergency department every weekend to support the locum medical officer. The hospital uses locums every weekend because there are insufficient numbers of local doctors available to fill the weekend on-call roster.

Due to this situation the health service has reminded the public that the emergency department is for emergency cases. People with minor injuries should seek treatment through their local GP to avoid an overflow of patients and longer waiting times.

“This is why we have the triage system,” Ms Jones said. “People with the most urgent health needs will be treated first, even before those who may have already been waiting as a result of a less serious condition. People with minor complaints are encouraged to make an appointment with their local GP.”