Emergency Department presentations at Orange Health Service have plummeted in most categories, with the Covid-19 pandemic responsible for the remarkable change in figures, which include a nearly 50% increase in non-urgent presentations to the hospital's Emergency Department.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Figures released by the Bureau of Health Information show that there were 1,622 ambulance arrivals at the Orange Health Service Emergency Department from April to June this year.
This was down from 1,903 in the same period last year, a drop of 14.8 percent.
There were 7,245 presentations to the Emergency Department in April to June 2020, down from 8,136 in the same time period in 2019, a drop of 11 percent.
In the resuscitation category the numbers rose slightly, from 95 to 99.
- READ ALSO: NSW hospital cluster grows, 10 new cases
The emergency category fell by 13.6 percent from 1,197 to 1,034.
There was a significant decrease in the urgent category, from 2,015 to 1,488, the equivalent of a 26.2 percent drop, and an even greater fall in the semi-urgent category, which crashed by nearly a third from 3,187 to 2,208.
Meanwhile, the April to June period saw a massive increase in the non-urgent category, up from 1,642 in April to June 2019 to 2,416 in 2020.
"The increase in (non-urgent) presentations over this period is primarily due to COVID-19 testing that occurred within EDs or co-located testing clinics," the bureau said.
Only two hospitals across the state recorded an increase in ambulance arrivals in the April to June period - Young and Moree.
Ambulance arrivals in Bathurst fell 17.2 percent while in Dubbo they went down by 18.9 percent.
DO YOU WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...