A mother and daughter have described scenes of "absolute chaos" at Waikato Hospital as staff attempted to resuscitate a man found unconscious while waiting to be seen at the Emergency Department.
1News understands the patient died in a toilet at the emergency department of the hospital after waiting more than nine hours to be seen. Waikato Hospital was undergoing two reviews in the wake of the man's death – an immediate clinical review and a serious adverse event review.
It's understood the man, aged in his mid 50s, had presented at the emergency department at 3.40pm on Monday.
Witness Sam Browne arrived at the hospital's emergency department via ambulance around 50 minutes later with abdominal pain. Her mum Deanne arrived around 30 minutes later to chairs "filled to the brim" with patients waiting to be seen, Sam said – some for more than 10 hours.
Around 1.30 to 2am – roughly nine hours into their wait – a man went into the bathroom and spotted the patient on the floor and attempted to call over a nurse for help, Sam said. Roughly a minute or so later, a female patient went into the bathrooms – and immediately ran out to alert a nurse to a man unconscious and unresponsive on the floor.
A nurse ran over and pressed the emergency call button, sending around 20 ED staff running to the bathroom.
"They started yelling ‘get the crash cart’, ‘get the paddles on him’, ‘get the screens up’. It just went into absolute chaos," Deanne said.
Three rows of patients had to be moved out of the way, Sam said, adding that the waiting room was "so compacted that they were literally sitting on top of each other’s knees".
"They were pressing this guy on the gurney straight to [resuscitation]. And that was basically the last we saw him," Sam said.
Her mum added: "There was a nurse literally on top of him doing CPR, so it was pretty full-on."
The patient died in a toilet at the emergency department of the hospital. (Source: 1News)
A "deafening silence" fell over the waiting room in the moments that followed, Sam said.
"People were realising that that could be them. That could be them and that was the harsh reality of people, I think, realising was that there’s no staff. They’re so understaffed that people are literally dying on A&E and Emergency Room floors, that anyone could be next. It’s scary."
Deanne added: "The whole atmosphere changed. It went cold and quiet."
The pair expressed their condolences to the man's whānau.
"We’re very sorry for the family. It must be absolutely horrific," Deanne said. "And also, saying sorry to all the people that witnessed it like we did 'cause it's not a very pleasant thing to have to deal with."
Sam said: "I'm absolutely ashamed that this has happened and it's had to come to this."
'Out of hand completely'
It took four hours to receive painkillers, Sam said, and six to see a nurse. It was 10 hours in before she was able to see a doctor.
"There were people that had waited there for 14 hours when I came in, and they were still waiting there when I was there," she said.
"It’s got out of hand completely."
Another patient experiencing heart problems gave up and went home after sitting in the waiting room for eight hours.
"There were many, many people that came in, complained about the wait time maybe an hour or two in when there was people who were there for 10-hours-plus and they basically just turned around and went home," Sam said.
"That’s the severity of the situation, I suppose is literally, people are dying and now people are taking notice when it should have been taken notice of so long ago."
Sam said she was later told by a nurse that it was "the worst that she’s seen in her career and she’s never, ever seen it this bad – so much so that nurses were going around handing complaint forms out and begging us to write a complaint to [Health NZ]".
Health NZ has a 2030 target of 95% of patients being admitted, discharged or transferred from an ED within six hours.
The most recent data showed nationally it was sitting at 74.4%, with Waikato Hospital at 66.5%.
Sam said it was "imperative" for people to use services such as Healthline.
"It would free up a lot of time and a lot of space in A&E because they do work with you and they try to help you to the best of their ability," she said.
She also called for more support for healthcare workers "who are looking after us [but] aren’t getting the care that they need".
"They need more funding. They need more people on the floor and we’re not getting it. We’ve had a perfect example of that on Monday [morning]. It shouldn’t have come to this."
Deanne said the "poor nurses and doctors" were "absolutely stretched".
"We cannot fault them. They’re doing their absolute best and they cannot be assisting all of these people because they are so understaffed and it’s just not fair... People are dying as a result of understaffing."
Sam said she received a call from the hospital this morning to apologise for the incident and to offer support.
Call for independent review
Health NZ Executive Regional Director Cath Cronin said the man who died was "waiting longer than we would have expected". (Source: Breakfast)
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation is calling for an independent inquiry into staffing levels following the man's death.
"New Zealanders need to know their local emergency departments have enough staff to provide the health care they need, when they need it," chief executive Paul Goulter said.
Te Whatu Ora Midland executive regional director Cath Cronin appeared on TVNZ's Breakfast this morning, where she said a wait time of 10 to 12 hours "wouldn't be an unusual time".
"I think that some months ago we had some patients waiting 24 hours," Cronin said. "And the team have worked, and that's reduced considerably. We're very rare now to have a patient waiting that long, and we've got additional beds open to be moving those patients through."
Goulter said the union had spent 20 months in bargaining, raising concerns around staffing levels putting patients' lives at risk.
"After 20 months of their concerns being brushed off, our members have little confidence in Te Whatu Ora reviewing its own processes," he said.
"The independent inquiry must also look at funding levels and whether the hospital has adequate funding to staff the emergency department."
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