AMA (NSW) response to NSW hospital winter pressures

MEDIA STATEMENT FROM AMA (NSW) PRESIDENT DR FRED BETROS

The NSW Government told the public our hospitals were prepared for winter. They clearly were not.

Today, the Premier and Health Minister are urging people to avoid emergency departments as hospitals, particularly in western Sydney, struggle under severe pressure.

This is not an unforeseen crisis. It is a failure to prepare for predictable demand.

The warning signs were impossible to miss. The Bureau of Health Information’s Healthcare Quarterly performance report for January to March 2026 showed NSW emergency departments recorded almost 792,000 attendances, while ambulances brought nearly 200,000 patients to hospitals, the highest number on record. Almost 80,000 patients spent more than 12 hours in an emergency department and only 68.4 per cent started treatment on time.

The same report showed fewer than half of patients at Westmead Hospital started treatment on time, with patients spending a median of six and a half hours in the emergency department. The NSW Government knew hospitals were operating dangerously close to capacity but failed to act with the urgency required.

I acknowledge Minister Ryan Park is working hard to manage the immediate crisis, and our doctors and other healthcare workers are again doing everything possible to protect patients. But their dedication cannot continue covering for inadequate planning.
Telling patients to stay away from emergency departments is not a health strategy.

NSW needs more consultant doctors, properly staffed beds, modern industrial arrangements to attract and retain doctors, and serious investment in prevention, general practice and public outpatient care.
Minister Park is right to press the Commonwealth on aged care and NDIS delays, but stranded patients cannot be blamed for every failure in our hospitals.

We need courage from politicians to invest beyond the election cycle.

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