The Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford, released a report today examining NSW Health’s management of health and safety risks to nurses and junior doctors in high demand hospital wards over the past five years, including during the first six months of the 2020 COVID-19 health emergency. The Auditor-General found that while NSW Health effectively managed most incidents and risks to the physical health and safety of hospital staff durin

There have been notable changes in the provision of emergency department services over the last decade, principally by increasing the number, seniority and training of staff and upgrading facilities. More recently, programs have focussed on achieving improvements in emergency department waiting times (the time taken to see a doctor) and access block (delay in accessing a hospital bed). However, these programs have had limited effect. Although waiting tim

The Police Service is in the process of undertaking a wide range of information technology and systems developments that are expected to improve the Service’s capabilities to apply intelligence information to the deployment of staff at Local Area Commands (LACs). Implementation of the current phase is to take place over the next eighteen months. The Audit Office considers that the developments are timely and when fully implemented should significantly co

Efforts to address homelessness in NSW are guided by the NSW Homelessness Strategy 2018-23. This Strategy aims to facilitate collaboration between the Government sector, non-government organisations and the community to reduce the impact of homelessness on individuals and improve outcomes for people and families. The 2018–19 Budget committed $1.0 billion for homelessness services over four years. Under the NSW COVID-19 Stage 2 stimulus in March 2020, the

The Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network delivers health care to adults and young people in contact with the forensic mental health and criminal justice systems. The Network supports a highly vulnerable patient population across community, inpatient and custodial settings. Its patients can include people with many and complex health needs and significant increases in the adult custodial population may have placed additional demands on the de

Legal Aid NSW and non-government community legal services (CLCs) provide legal assistance services across New South Wales to socially and economically disadvantaged people to improve access to justice and help people break the cycle of disadvantage. Legal Aid NSW operates through a network of 24 offices and 235 regular outreach locations. In August 2018, the NSW Government announced an increase in funding available for CLCs, with annual contributions exp