Emergency Department

An emergency department (ED) is part of a hospital that provides 24-hour emergency care to patients who need urgent medical attention. 

Emergency departments are there to deal with serious or life-threatening illnesses and injuries. For minor conditions, there are a range of other options to consider.

If you’re not sure if your problem is an emergency, you can call 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84). Qualified health staff will advise you on what to do and if you need to go to a GP, pharmacy, or emergency department.

You can also visit the Right Place Right Time website, which has a symptom checker and includes contact information for 13 HEALTH and local GPs, including after-hours services.

What happens when you arrive?

If you do attend one of our emergency departments, you should go straight to the Triage Desk. There you’ll be reviewed by a Triage Nurse, who will assess your urgency for medical attention and assign you an appropriate triage category.

The categories are:

1. Immediately life-threatening. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor or nurse within 2 minutes of arriving.
2. Imminently life-threatening. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor or nurse within 10 minutes of arriving.
3. Potentially life-threatening. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor or nurse within 30 minutes of arriving.
4. Potentially serious. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor or nurse within 60 minutes of arriving.
5. Less urgent. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor or nurse within 120 minutes of arriving.

Patients are seen in order of urgency, not arrival time. Your mode of arrival (eg, ambulance or private vehicle) doesn’t have an impact of the triage category applied.

Following triage, you may be asked to present to administrative staff to complete relevant paperwork and to provide your Medicare card, and will then be seen by a doctor for treatment. Please be aware that if you don’t have a Medicare card (for instance, if you’re from an overseas country without a Reciprocal Health Agreement with Australia), you may be billed for your visit.

Please remember our hard-working emergency staff need to prioritise our sickest patients first. While we will never turn anyone away, this may mean you will have to wait longer to be seen if your case is less urgent.