How many ‘EDs’ does Australia have: 122, 126, 162, 181 or 203? How many rural hospitals have an emergency area that fails to make the grade: 483 or 406? We do not know because national organisations cannot agree when a rural hospital’s emergency service meets the criteria to be called an ‘ED’.

This brief article outlines the various counts and classifications of emergency departments and other hospital-based emergency care facilities in Australia.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1742-6723.12199/abstract

Baker T, Dawson S. How many emergency departments? Emergency Medicine Australasia 2014, Apr;26(2):212-3.