Increasing ambulance response times show that the NSW emergency healthcare system was overwhelmed before the outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant, the state's paramedics union says.
But while NSW Ambulance has acknowledged the increased demand, the emergency service agency says it has kept the state-wide median response time for priority 1A emergencies, which include life-threatening conditions, at just over eight minutes - below the 10 minute benchmark.
The latest Bureau of Health Information statistics show that the Hunter, outside Newcastle, and Port Stephens had median response times that increase by one minute - to 10 minutes - when comparing the April-to-June quarter in 2021 with the same period last year.
Response times in this category dropped by one minute at Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, to seven minutes. But there were increases in response times in the urgent category, with Lake Macquarie West's median blowing-out by nine minutes to 31 minutes and Port Stephens increasing by six minutes to 28 minutes.
Despite a five minute increase in Lake Macquarie East and Maitland, both equaled the NSW median of 25 minutes.
"To pass off our healthcare crisis as a product of the current outbreak is misleading at best," APA assistant secretary Alan O'Riordan said.
"COVID may have served to highlight the existing issues, but this is fundamentally a crisis of resourcing and management."
In a statement, NSW Ambulance said the April-to-June quarter this year was one of the busiest the agency had experienced, with 329,709 call-outs across the state - up 21.9 per cent from the same period in 2020.
The 8367 cases in the highest priority category represented a 29.3 per cent jump.
The agency said the latest BHI results reflected the "significant pressures associated with preparing for and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic".
"Despite all the changes throughout the health system over the last 18 months our paramedics continue to support the community in their time of need," NSW Ambulance Chief Executive Dominic Morgan said.
