The family of a woman who died at Middlemore Hospital have a right to know what happened and what steps are being taken to address the hospital's problems, advocates say.
By Stephen Forbes, Local Democracy Reporting
It will be one month this weekend since the woman’s death at the hospital on June 16.
READ MORE: Patient dies after leaving Middlemore ED due to wait time
In a statement last week, Health NZ (Counties Manukau) interim district director Dr Pete Watson said chief medical officer Dr Andrew Connolly was leading a review of the incident, which hadn’t yet been finalised.
But he refused to answer questions on when the investigation into the patient’s death would be completed or when the findings would be released.
READ MORE: Investigation in Middlemore patient death still ongoing
The patient first arrived at the emergency department at about 1am on June 15 with a severe headache. She was allegedly told it would likely be hours before she could be seen and left.
She returned to the hospital in an ambulance a few hours later after a “massive” brain haemorrhage and died the following day.
Patient Voice Aotearoa chairperson Malcolm Mulholland said a month on, the woman’s family deserved some answers.
“It’s pretty obvious it’s a system failure and that’s why the patient lost their life,” Mulholland said.
“People have got to have trust in the health system, because if we don’t have that what have we got?”
Mulholland said patient wait times at hospital emergency departments had reached record levels around the country.
People were facing waits to book appointments with their GPs, so were turning up at hospitals to seek treatment, adding to the strain on an overburdened health system.
“Unless there’s something done to address the pressure on doctors we will, unfortunately, see more cases like this.”
National Party health spokesperson Shane Reti said he thought there should have been progress made on the investigation by now.
“There should have at least been some substantial preliminary findings released,” he said.
“I think there should have been some action taken on them before the DHB ceased to exist [on July 1].”
Reti rejected claims by former Counties Manukau DHB chairperson Mark Gosche that a brief statement released late in June constituted the preliminary findings.
“We need to know if the patient was triaged first or were they told about the wait time first? If it was the latter, that’s the policy change that needs to happen right now.
“We need to make sure the best procedures are being applied as soon as possible.”
Middlemore Hospital has seen a surge in patients as a result of winter respiratory viruses, such as influenza, and the impact of staff having to take time off due to Covid-19.
Both the hospital and Health NZ were approached for comment.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
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