The median waiting time has also been reduced for urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent surgeries at the two hospitals.

But the news isn’t as good for the emergency department at Dubbo hospital.

The median waiting time has gone up for urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent surgeries at Dubbo Base Hospital.

That’s according to the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) data for the July-September 2018 quarter.

The BHI compared the performance of hospitals in the Western NSW Local Health District, which provides health services in Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, Cowra, Mudgee and Forbes, on various parameters.

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Bathurst hospital showed the most improvement compared with the rest of the hospitals in the Central West.

For instance, 88.5 per cent of patients started treatment on time in the July-September 2018 quarter compared with 74.8 per cent of patients during the same time last year.

Orange hospital’s performance improved from 84.6 per cent to 85.9 per cent this year, but Dubbo saw a sharp decline from 76.4 per cent to 68 per cent for the corresponding period.

Cowra and Forbes hospitals also witnessed a small decline in their performances in terms of people starting treatment on time.

Mudgee hospital’s performance improved from 66.9 per cent to 72.4 per cent.

The median time to leave the emergency department also improved for Bathurst, Orange, Cowra and Forbes hospitals, but it went up for Dubbo and Mudgee hospitals.

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The BHI said this improvement could be due to fewer people visiting the emergency department and a mild flu season this year.

There was a decline of 6.9 per cent in total presentations at the emergency department at Bathurst hospital.

Orange, Dubbo, Forbes and Mudgee experienced a decline of 6.3 per cent, six per cent, 7.1 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively. 

But for Cowra, it went up five per cent.

BHI chief executive, Diane Watson, said the latest issue of Healthcare Quarterly compares results from July to September 2018, when there was a relatively mild flu season, to the same quarter in 2017, when there was a severe flu season.

“While we need to take this year’s milder flu season into consideration when looking at these results, it is still encouraging to see results at NSW level have improved compared with the same quarter last year,” Ms Watson said.

However, the improvements at NSW level were not reflected across all public hospitals. 

“The report shows while many hospitals have improved the timeliness of care in their emergency departments, others have not improved or their performance has declined,” Ms Watson said.

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WNSWLHD chief executive, Scott McLachlan, said the local health district performed 2984 elective surgery procedures between July and September 2018, an increase of 3.4 per cent on the July-September 2017 quarter.

But despite an increase in surgeries, the median waiting time for urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent elective surgeries has come down for most Central West hospitals in the July-September 2018 quarter compared with the same period last year.

For instance, the median waiting time at Bathurst hospital was the same (18 days) for urgent surgeries, but it fell from 58 days to 46 days for semi-urgent and 317 days to 300 days for non-urgent surgeries.

Orange reduced its median waiting time from 14 days to 13 days for urgent, 48 days to 39 days for semi-urgent and 311 days to 305 days for non-urgent surgeries.

For Cowra, the median waiting time was reduced by two days for an urgent surgery, but it went up for both semi-urgent and non-urgent surgeries.

The median waiting time, however, increased at Dubbo Base Hospital and Mudgee hospital.

For Dubbo, it went up from 15 days to 17 days for urgent and 43 days to 58 days for semi-urgent surgeries.

It came down for non-urgent surgeries from 297 days to 219 days.

For Mudgee, the median waiting time for an urgent surgery went up from 19 days to 22 days, for semi-urgent it increased from 40 days to 44 days and for non-urgent surgery it went up from 55 days to 133 days.