The Bureau of Health Information’s January to March 2017 quarterly figures have revealed the average time patients needing resuscitation were waiting to be transferred into hospital care was 10 minutes, the same as last year.

It was faster than hospitals in Bathurst (13 minutes) and Dubbo (12 minutes), the same as Forbes and Mudgee and well ahead of the NSW benchmark of 30 minutes.

That was despite the number of patients with the most serious conditions increasing by 23, or 52.3 per cent, over the same time last year.

The time people waited for treatment for conditions including chest pains and severe burns after arriving at the hospital has also been kept at the five-minute average of the previous year.

However, the average wait time for less critical cases has increased.

Wait times for urgent cases, such as moderate blood loss or dehydration, increased from 15 minutes to 17 minutes, semi-urgent cases including sprained ankles and earaches went from 20 minutes to 22 minutes and non-urgent cases including small cuts or abrasions, went from 16 minutes to 20 minutes.

The analysis also showed patients received elective surgery at Orange hospital up to several days faster than the same time last year.

First-time figures on the period between making a call for an ambulance and the ambulance arriving showed patients in the central west waited slightly longer than the NSW average.

They found in 91.3 per cent of the cases, the ambulance arrived in the within 30 minutes of people calling, compared to 94.7 per cent in NSW.

Orange Health Service general manager Catherine Nowlan said the quick turnaround for critical patients had been achieved despite staff seeing more patients and 53 more ambulances than the same time last year.

“People need to be fairly confident about the fantastic response of our Orange teams,” she said.

She said the increased waiting times for patients with less serious conditions were “not a huge variation”.

“If you have seen more triage one and triage two, the emergency cases, and more ambulances, then our teams are going to be dealing with those people first,” she said.

“If people [with lesser conditions] can, you should go to see your GP.

“People should keep emergency for emergencies.”