Physicians raise concerns over NSW Health data, asserting that 'concealing outcomes doesn't resolve the issue.'

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More individuals are seeking hospital care in Australia’s largest healthcare system, while doctors allege that critical data is being concealed from the public view.

NSW hospitals saw an unprecedented number of admissions, exceeding 515,000 admitted patient episodes in the period from April to June 2025, according to the latest Healthcare Quarterly report from the Bureau of Health Information.

Almost 65,000 elective surgeries were conducted across NSW, marking the highest quarterly figure since the bureau began reporting in 2010.

The number of patients at the end of June waiting longer than clinically recommended for surgery decreased to 2,534, a significant drop from 8,588 at the end of March 2025.

However, Australian Medical Association NSW president Kathryn Austin criticized the report, suggesting it masks crucial data, and raised concerns about how the data is presented by the bureau.

She highlighted that only 66.1 percent of non-urgent surgeries, which should be completed within a year, were conducted on time, a notable decline from 82.4 percent during the same period in 2024.

“Concealing these outcomes does not solve the issue — it merely erodes trust in the system and hampers the implementation of necessary reforms,” Austin said.

The association said one in 10 patients spent longer than 13 hours and six minutes in the emergency department in urban hospitals, a trend it said was unacceptable.

But the Bureau of Health Information said it applied the same criteria of “objectivity, fairness and meaningfulness” when highlighting key findings each quarter, regardless of the nature of the results.

“The decrease in the percentage of elective surgeries performed on time measure is a direct result of the large number of patients who had been overdue receiving their surgery during the quarter,” a bureau spokesperson told AAP.

“Information on surgery waiting times remains accessible in the key findings, alongside charts that transparently show waiting durations and the proportion of surgeries completed on schedule.”

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said even though hospitals continued to experience high demand, the government was working towards relieving pressure.

“We’re investing in more staff, more hospitals and more beds, more quickly, and we’re seeing lower wait times and less ramping,” he said.

“While lower ED wait times and ramping are promising, there is still more to be done.”

The decline is attributed to the recruitment of nearly 3,000 full-time healthcare workers, as retention levels stabilize to pre-pandemic standards, and increased use of urgent and virtual healthcare services.

A man in a navy suit and a patterned tie holds his hands up, palms forward, as if to stop something. He stands at a podium with microphones from various news outlets in front of him, speaking with a serious expression on his face.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park stated that despite the ongoing high demand for hospital services, the government is actively working to alleviate the pressure. Source: AAP / Dan Himbrechts

Emergency departments had 785,084 attendances, with a slight drop of 1.3 per cent from the same quarter in 2024.

Bureau acting chief executive Hilary Rowell said: “Fewer patients with less-urgent conditions presented to EDs. However, there were record numbers of patients presenting with more serious conditions.”

The report notes nearly 80 per cent of patients who arrived by ambulance were transferred to ED staff within 30 minutes — up 5.6 percentage points compared with the same time in 2024.