Major staff shortages are pushing the emergency department at Palmerston North hospital to the brink.
The emergency department currently has 22 beds to treat up to 140 patients per day. During one weekend recently, 14 people spent more than 24 hours sitting in the waiting room, as the department grapples with a shortage of five senior doctors and 11 registrars.
This morning Breakfast spoke to ED consultant Dr Thomas Carter on the current crisis at the hospital, who said the situation has been ongoing.
"It's essential to realise that this is not a new phenomenon in Palmerston North. The stress has been ongoing for a number of years — that makes day-to-day life very difficult," Carter said.
Carter said patients that come into ED are incredibly apologetic because they're aware of the stress the hospital is under.
The hospital's emergency department is short of five senior doctors and 11 registrars. (Source: Breakfast)
"That's very disheartening as a doctor because we know they're there for the right reasons. The patients aren't someone that can be deferred to a GP or quickly sent out the door."
"The main problem that we see is the mix of messaging. Patients are often blamed and they're told that they shouldn't be in the ED — which is very inaccurate," Carter said.
A severe lack of funding and investment has left Palmerston North hospital unable to keep up with the demand of services they provide across the region, the ED consultant said.
"The long-term vision of Te Whatu Ora's good, however, they have to address immediate needs. You can't lose anymore doctors that are here, so there has to be a lot of discussion about recruitment and retention."
Carter said the shortages are dangerous for staff who are stretched thin and struggling to keep up, often juggling more than one role to make do.
"I need colleagues. I can't do it all by myself. I'm a decent doctor but I'm a really bad nurse and I'm a terrible orderly. You can't expect to just add a few doctors and solve it. It has to be systematic investment and it has to be long term," he said.
Te Whatu Ora's Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Baker acknowledged the challenges ahead for the healthcare system over the next while.
"At this point in the season, we are at a bit of a low in terms of staff from the Northern Hemisphere. So we would expect that in the next three to four months we'll get quite a lot of Northern Hemisphere staff coming down, but as you say that is a bit of a sticking plaster," Baker said.
Baker said that while they are presented with these difficult challenges at the moment, there are certain measures in place for ED.
"One of our major safety steps at the moment is to make sure that those who do wait, can wait. Certainly those waiting times are too long, but by ongoing observation and urgent medicines et cetera we can make it safer," he said.
Baker said the hard work staff have been putting in is critical and that while the situation is increasingly difficult, Aotearoa would not be unique on the planet in terms of the sheer strain that its health services are under.
"We appreciate our staff, we understand that they are the absolute core to our system and they're going the extra mile."
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