Frontline hospital staff are warning long waits at emergency departments nationwide are set to continue for months.
The warning comes amid patients waiting extended periods to see doctors and Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital diverting ambulances carrying emergency patients to other hospitals last Tuesday night.
Emergency medicine specialist Dr Kate Allan says it’s uncommon for hospitals to temporarily divert patients and it’s usually a last resort to enable overloaded staff to regroup and take stock.
“We really try not to do that and so you're in real trouble when you do it because we know we're then putting pressure on our colleagues in the other hospitals who are also at capacity," she said.
New Zealand hospitals, already stretched by the Covid-19 pandemic, are dealing with high admissions due to the early onset of winter flu and also the arrival of other respiratory virus, including the highly infectious RSV which hospitalised more than 1000 children last winter.
The acting chief executive of Counties Manukau DHB, Dr Pete Watson, says the hospital’s emergency department received a record number of arrivals – 400 cases a day – last week.
“On top of that now, we’ve got a full hospital,” Watson told 1News. “It means we actually don’t have the capacity and we’re working as a region, across the city, to support one another.”
Allan says anyone needing emergency care should go to their nearest emergency department where well-developed triage systems should enable correct patient prioritisation.
However, she says everyone needs to exercise responsible behaviour if they’re unwell and stay home, rest and recuperate to ensure others don’t also become infected.
“If you RAT test negative, just because you don't have Covid doesn't mean ‘that's fine’, you've got a green pass to go out and spread your germs."
Her advice is to stock up on pain relief and cough medicine because they do help with recovery from respiratory illness, and to drink lots of fluids if you become unwell.
SHARE ME