OUR region is a hotspot for mums-to-be, according to latest health statistics.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Hunter New England is the third most popular health district in NSW for mothers to give birth.
A total of 2008 babies were born in the health district's 13 hospitals between April and June this year, data compiled by the Bureau of Health Information shows.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The area was only outperformed by South Western Sydney (2698 babies born between April and June this year) and Western Sydney (2405 babies born).
That beat the Nepean Blue Mountains, Illawarra Shoalhaven, Murrumbidgee and Mid-North Coast health districts.
In New England, 299 babies were born in Tamworth Base Hospital, 84 in Armidale, 48 in Inverell, 29 in Moree, 16 in Narrabri and 10 in Gunnedah, with the remaining babies born in other Hunter hospitals.
Ninety four per cent of new mothers said nurses were always kind and caring at Armidale Hospital, while at Inverell Hospital 95 per cent rated their care during labour and birth as very good.
Tamworth Hospital didn't score so highly, with just 84 per cent of new mums there describing nurses as always kind and caring.
On average, all patients who presented to hospitals across the New England Hunter health region spent 6.6 days in hospital between April and June this year.
Hunter New England hospitals were the busiest in the state between April and June, notching 231,313 bed days in that period, a rise of nearly 10 per cent compared with the previous quarter.
Most of these bed days were in John Hunter and Tamworth hospitals.
Armidale Hospital recorded 8615 bed days in the latest quarter, up by 269 days between January and March.
Over the same period the region's hospitals dealt with 56,243 episodes of care, or period of health care with a defined start and end.
That was the second highest period in the state, with South Western Sydney health district notching 62,877 periods of health care between April and June.
At that hospital, all patients received their elective surgery on time in the period from April to June 2023, the data shows.
By comparison, patients receiving non-urgent elective surgery in other hospitals across NSW had to wait an average 229 days.
Patients receiving semi-urgent elective surgery in other hospitals across NSW had to wait an average 13 days, while those receiving urgent elective surgery had to wait an average 11 days.
The bureau publishes regular, independent reports on the performance of the NSW healthcare system.
Each report provides a benchmark of the performance of the public health system with comparable health systems.
