Pressure on NSW hospitals is "beyond capacity" and it's not just because of the record number of flu patients turning up to emergency rooms.
The latest quarterly report from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) revealed more than 720,000 people arrived at NSW hospital emergency departments between July and September.
AMA NSW president Professor Brad Frankum said while this year's flu season had been "very bad" the pressure on hospitals had been "continuous, unrelenting, and building".
"Some of this extra activity can be blamed on the horrendous flu season, sadly, this is just part of the same pattern the BHI reports have been describing for years," Prof Frankum said in a statement on Wednesday.
"2016-2017 was a horror summer in terms of hospital activity - we've just had a record flu season in winter and before that it was a busy autumn and it was followed by a busy spring as well - demand is beyond capacity and growing."
The latest data also prompted calls from the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) for improved nurse-to-patient ratios.
"We know from feedback from our members that many nurses spent the winter period working extremely short staffed, missing meal breaks and working many hours of overtime just to keep up with demand," NSWNMA general secretary Brett Holmes said in statement.
"The results out today are yet another reason why the Berejiklian Government needs to seriously improve and expand the current nurse-to-patient ratios within our public hospital system," he said.
BHI's acting chief executive Kim Sutherland believed the main reason behind the increase was the horror flu season.
"Winter is typically the busiest quarter for NSW public hospitals, but this winter season was particularly busy for emergency departments throughout the state," Dr Sutherland said.
More than 68 per cent of patients spent less than four hours in emergency departments, while paramedics reached 60.1 per cent of emergency cases within 15 minutes.
NSW Health is already preparing for next year's flu season, deputy secretary system purchasing and performance, Susan Pearce said in a statement.
"Vaccination still remains the best protection against the flu and we strongly encourage people to get the vaccine next year to protect themselves and their families against the deadly virus," she said.
But Prof Brad Frankum said the state's hospitals were stretched and urgent action was needed.
"We need greater capacity at hospitals, we need to better utilise general practice and other out-of-hospital specialist care, and we need to do it fast."
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