Several patients arriving at Middlemore Hospital's emergency department (ED) on Tuesday night were diverted to North Shore Hospital due to capacity issues.
It comes just a week into winter, with hospitals seeing an influx of patients with flu-like illnesses.
Acting Chief executive Dr Pete Watson told 1News in the past few weeks people have been arriving at the ED in record-high numbers.
"We don't have capacity and we’re working as a region now, as a city to support one and other so there’s a lot of coordination."
He said the 10 patients diverted last night is quite a lot but it eases the pressure on their staff.
"But it does put another load on another hospital so we're only doing it for brief periods for us to actually ensure that we manage our emergency department while we treat some patients."
Watson said he anticipates this will continue for another three to four months.
"It's going to be a really long, challenging winter and what that means is we've got to really support our staff."
Watson says he's worried for the hospitals, but also for the wider community.
"It's a long tough winter ahead," he said.
Dr Vanessa Thornton, Clinical Director of Hospital Services says that Middlemore is seeing record demand.
"Middlemore is full, and with a high number of emergency department presentations over the last two days we activated our regional patient coordination as part of our winter response plan.
"Last night we were on bypass to North Shore Hospital for 3.5 hours to assist with managing patients and the challenges of having had record number of patients (420) at our Emergency Department over a 24 hour period," Thornton said.
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