The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) has today released its latest Healthcare Quarterly report, showing activity and performance for public health services in NSW from October to December 2025.
NSW public hospital and ambulance services experienced increased demand during the quarter, with record numbers of emergency department (ED) attendances, admitted patient episodes and ambulance calls, incidents and responses.
BHI Chief Executive, Adjunct Professor Heiko Spallek, said ‘Despite unprecedented demand across the NSW public health system, performance remained stable in key areas.’
There were 820,009 attendances at NSW hospital EDs during the quarter – the highest since BHI began reporting in 2010. There was an increase in presentations for the more urgent clinical conditions (triage categories 1, 2 and 3), while fewer patients presented with less urgent conditions (triage categories 4 and 5).
The percentage of patients starting their treatment on time (66.3 per cent) was relatively stable compared with the same quarter a year earlier. The median time patients spent in EDs from arrival to leaving was 3 hours and 46 minutes – up 12 minutes.
A record number of patients (79,004) left NSW hospital EDs without, or before completing, treatment – up by 10,846 (15.9 per cent) from the same quarter a year earlier.
Ambulances and surgery
Ambulance services also experienced record demand, with the highest number of calls and incidents since 2010. While the number of ambulance responses was relatively stable (up 0.6 per cent) compared with the same quarter a year earlier, it was also a record high.
The percentage of ‘life-threatening (CAT 1)’ responses within 10 minutes was 61.6 per cent and the median response time for CAT 1 was 8.5 minutes, both relatively stable.
There were 518,436 admitted patient episodes during the quarter – the highest of any October to December quarter since 2010.
While the average length of stay for all overnight episodes was relatively stable (6.2 days), the average length of stay for overnight non-acute episodes (e.g. rehabilitation, geriatric evaluation and management) was 19.3 days – the highest of any October to December quarter.
The number of elective surgeries performed (58,922) was up 7.2 per cent, with more surgeries performed across all urgency categories.
The percentage of elective surgeries performed on time (83.1 per cent) was relatively stable. However, patients who received non-urgent surgery had a median wait time of 324 days, up 15 days from the same quarter a year earlier.
At the end of December 2025, there were 92,812 patients on the waiting list, down 7.4 per cent from the same time a year earlier. Of those patients, 3,845 had waited longer than clinically recommended, down 43.8 per cent from the same time in 2024.
