Hospital staff across Southern NSW Local Health District (LHD) have been recognised for providing high levels of care to patients in the latest Emergency Department (ED) Patient Survey.
The survey provides a snapshot of the experiences of 1793 people who attended the District’s EDs between July 2021 and June 2022, which included the Delta and Omicron waves of COVID-19.
Southern LHD Chief Executive, Margaret Bennett, said staff from Batemans Bay, Moruya, South East Regional in Bega, Cooma and Goulburn should be proud of the high standards of care they continued to provide to patients while dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These results are a wonderful reflection of our staff’s commitment to their patients and community at a time when they were balancing high demand, additional preventative measures and staff furloughing due to COVID-19,” Ms Bennett said.
“I am pleased to see such positive patient experiences at our hospitals, with the vast majority (89 per cent) of the patients surveyed rating the care they received at EDs as ‘very good’ or ‘good’.
“The majority of those surveyed also reported the District’s ED health staff were ‘always’ kind and caring (82 per cent) and ‘always’ treated patients with dignity and respect (85 per cent).”
A number of hospitals were recognised for their performance, with the majority of survey respondents saying they would speak highly of Cooma Hospital (81 per cent), Queanbeyan Hospital (73 per cent) and South East Regional Hospital (76 per cent).
The latest Bureau of Health Information survey showed:
SOUTH EAST REGIONAL HOSPITAL (BEGA): South East Regional Hospital achieved strong results, performing better than the state-wide average in relation to three survey questions and significantly improving on results from the 2020-21 survey in relation to four survey questions.
Almost all patients (92 per cent) surveyed rated the treating ED professionals as ‘very good’ or ‘good’. 86 per cent of patients surveyed said they were always treated with dignity and respect and that figure dropped to 84 percent when asked if ED health professionals were always kind and caring.
BATEMANS BAY HOSPITAL: 84 per cent of Batemans Bay Hospital ED patients surveyed said they were always treated with dignity and respect while 81 percent said ED health professionals were always kind and caring, leaving 19 percent that didn’t feel that way.
MORUYA HOSPITAL: 83 per cent of Moruya Hospital ED patients surveyed rated their overall care as ‘very good’ or ‘good’, while 83 per cent said they were always treated with dignity and respect.
COOMA HOSPITAL: Cooma Hospital ED performed better than the state-wide average in relation to six survey questions. 89 per cent of patients rated ED care at Cooma as ‘very good’ or ‘good’.
90 per cent of those surveyed said they were always treated with dignity and respect and 85 percent said that ED health professionals were always kind and caring.
QUEANBEYAN HOSPITAL: 86 per cent of Queanbeyan Hospital ED patients surveyed said they were always treated with dignity and respect and 83 per cent that ED health professionals were always kind and caring.
GOULBURN BASE HOSPITAL: 83 per cent of Goulburn Base Hospital patients surveyed rated their ED care as ‘very good’ or ‘good’.
81 per cent patients said they were always treated with respect and dignity and just 77 per cent said that ED health professionals were always kind and caring.
Images: East Coast Radio
