Hospitals
Emergency department care
Emergency departments (EDs) are an essential component of Australia’s health care system. Many of Australia’s public hospitals have purpose-built EDs, staffed 24 hours a day, providing care for patients who require urgent medical, surgical or other attention.
These pages provide information about care provided in specialised emergency departments in public hospitals.
In 2024–25:
Source: AIHW NNAPEDC Database
Overview of emergency department activity
In 2024–25, there were 9.1 million presentations to EDs in public hospitals across Australia – a rate of 328 presentations per 1,000 population. This is an increase since 2015–16, when there were 7.6 million presentations, equating to a rate of 316 per 1,000 people.
Age and sex
Nationally, in 2024–25:
- males (as identified in the data) accounted for 49% of presentations to EDs and females (as identified in the data) accounted for 51%
- for all patients, the most common triage categories assigned were Urgent (42%), Semi-urgent (34%) and Emergency (18%)
- patients aged 4 years and under accounted for 10% of presentations; and young people aged 15–44 accounted for a further 37%
- patients aged 65 and over accounted for 24% of presentations
- of the patients aged 65 and over who presented to ED, 52% were subsequently admitted to hospital compared to 30% for all patients.
Emergency department waiting times
Nationally, in 2024–25:
- 50% of patients were seen within 18 minutes, which was the same as the previous year but lower than the median waiting times for 2022–23 and 2021–22 (both 20 minutes)
- 90% of patients were seen within 1 hour and 58 minutes. This was one minute higher than the previous year but lower than the 90th percentile waiting time for 2022–23 (2 hours and 4 minutes).
Overall, 67% of patients were ‘seen on time’ for their triage category, including 100% of those requiring immediate care (Resuscitation) and 68% of those requiring care within 10 minutes (Emergency care). The overall proportion of patients seen on time in 2024–25 remains unchanged from 2023–24, but is lower than in 2020–21, when it was 71%.
Time spent in emergency departments
Overall, there has been an increase in the amount of time that patients spend in emergency departments since 2020–21. Nationally, in 2024–25:
- 53% of ED visits were completed within 4 hours, a decrease from 2023–24 (55%) and 2020–21 (67%)
- 90% of ED visits were completed within 11 hours and 16 minutes, which is an increase of 3 hours and 16 minutes since 2020–21 when 90% of visits were completed within approximately 8 hours
- 90% of ED visits for patients subsequently admitted to the hospital were completed in 18 hours 57 minutes, an increase of nearly 6 hours from 2020–21 (12 hours 57 minutes). It has increased since 2023–24 from 18 hours, 17 minutes.