It also highlights the challenges faced by a depleted healthcare workforce across the NSW health system dealing with the increased number and complexity of cases. Earlier this year at Westmead Hospital, for example, at least 21 patients had to wait up to 363 days for a cancer diagnosis due to the massive demand for endoscopies.

At the peak of the Concord backlog in the second half of 2023, the number of unreported radiology studies totalled 50,178 – 40 per cent of the total number of images reviewed by the department that year.

The vast majority of these were X-rays, leaving patients waiting an average of 131 days for results.

In one case, two incidents of delayed fracture diagnoses in a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old child were escalated to management in September 2022. In response, a new system was recommended to ensure chest and paediatric X-rays were prioritised and reported daily, but this was not implemented until May 2024. A new triage system took longer, coming into effect in August that year.

Original source: au