Bed block in state hospitals has surged by over 50 per cent over the past year.
Despite this, emergency department (ED) treatment times are continuing to show signs of turning around with the state achieving another yearly improvement in T2 emergency treatment times.
Data released today in the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) MyHospitals update reinforces this improvement, showing that despite having the highest demand for emergency care in the country, NSW hospitals had the shortest emergency care wait times in the country for 2024-25.
T2 emergency treatment times continue to turn around
The latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) quarterly report shows ED treatment times are turning around during this same period.
NSW hospitals recorded a third consecutive increase in a quarter of the number of T2 emergency patients being treated within ten minutes, when compared to the same quarters in 2024.
It follows increases in the number of T2 patients being treated within ten minutes in the March 2025 quarter as well as the June 2025 quarter, compared to the same quarters in the previous year.
T2 emergency patients are among the most unwell including those suffering from chest pain, difficulty breathing, severe fractures, serious abdominal pain and sepsis – and need to be treated within ten minutes.
Some of the state’s busiest hospitals saw significant increases in the proportion of T2 emergency patients being treated within ten minutes when compared to the same quarter the previous year:
- Bankstown Hospital – increasing by half (from 31.6 per cent to 47.4 per cent)
- Blacktown Hospital – increasing by over a half (from 22.4 per cent to 35.2 per cent)
- Campbelltown Hospital – more than doubling (from 11.8 per cent to 30.1 per cent)
- Liverpool Hospital – almost doubling (from 33.6 per cent to 61.9 per cent)
It is particularly noteworthy given the July-September quarter is generally regarded as the busiest of the year, as winter illnesses circulate the community.
This improvement is part of the Minns Labor Government’s broader work to rebuild essential health services, by recruiting more health workers, delivering more beds, expanding urgent care options, and fixing the problems too long ignored.
Improvements in ED performance come as the number of semi-urgent and non-urgent presentations to EDs have decreased by almost 20,000 in the July-September 2025 quarter compared to the same quarter the previous year.
In addition, half a million people called Healthdirect in the year to September 2025 – almost 55 per cent of these or 222,000 were referred to an alternative pathway to an emergency department, which includes GPs, virtual care, urgent care or allied health. This is a direct result of the Minns Labor Government investing into more pathways to care outside the ED through Healthdirect and the expansion of urgent and virtual care.
The Bureau of Health Information also released its survey results for the patients’ experiences in emergency departments in 2024-25. Around one in 10 patients (11%) said they thought their condition ‘definitely’ could have been treated by a GP or other health professional. The most common reasons for not seeing a GP or health professional included that the service was closed or they couldn’t get an appointment within a reasonable time.
The ED performance improvements are a result of over half a billion dollars in major initiatives by the Minns Labor Government to relieve pressure on our hospitals, including:
- Completing the rollout of nurse safe staffing ratios at 18 hospital EDs and recruiting for nurse safe staffing ratios at a further 28 hospital EDs;
- Expanding virtual care across the entire state;
- Establishing more short stay units and expanding hospital in the home; and
- Freeing up more GPs by empowering pharmacists to treat less complex conditions.
The Minns Labor Government is getting on with the job of delivering the hospitals the community needs and deserves, after the Liberals failed to build Rouse Hill and Bankstown hospitals; and failed to deliver enough beds for Blacktown and Mount Druitt.
Commonwealth bed block surges
The number of patients exceeding their estimated date of discharge in NSW public hospitals because they are waiting to access a Commonwealth aged care or National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) placement increased from 747 to 1,151 in the year to 30 September 2025.
The number of these patients increased by 5.6 per cent in the September quarter alone.
The biggest yearly increases have occurred at some of the state’s largest hospitals:
- Westmead – from 33 to 60
- Wyong – from 28 to 48
- Campbelltown – from 26 to 42
- Calvary Mater – from 6 to 42
- Nepean – from 25 to 41
- Gosford – from 12 to 39
- St George – from 5 to 30
- Blacktown – from 7 to 18
- Shoalhaven – from 6 to 16
- Wollongong – from 5 to 14
Minister for Health Ryan Park:
“Commonwealth bed block has surged in NSW hospitals by over 50 per cent in just a single year, and this is simply not sustainable.
“Commonwealth bed block has serious consequences for our state hospitals – from wards, to surgeries that can’t be conducted, to people waiting for beds in the ED.
“Imagine if Westmead and Mount Druitt hospitals were ripped out from our health system, that’s what Commonwealth bed block is doing to NSW right now.
“I want to thank our health workers for delivering another yearly improvement in ED T2 emergency treatment time performance.
“This is a result of fewer people presenting with semi-urgent and non-urgent conditions, thanks to people contacting Healthdirect and receiving treatment through virtual and urgent care.
“I do want to reiterate, if you have less urgent conditions, you can expect longer wait times, and you can spare yourself a wait in an ED by phoning Healthdirect on 1800 022 222, where you can speak to a registered nurse who will advise you of your pathways to care outside of the hospital.
“No one will forget that the Liberals decimated the health system by planning to sack over 1,100 nurses; refusing to implement safe staffing ratios in EDs; failing to build Rouse Hill and Bankstown Hospital; failing to deliver enough beds for Blacktown and Mount Druitt; and planning to privatise six acute public hospitals across the state.”