The daughter of a man who died after waiting nine hours at Waikato Hospital's emergency department has spoken out about how her family's "whole world was flipped upside down".
Tayla Horsburgh spoke about her father Brent's tragic death at a political debate in Auckland on World Patient Safety Day, attended by representatives from most of the major parties. She was among several others who gave testimony about their experiences with New Zealand's health system.
Brent died in a toilet in the hospital's emergency department in late June, having spent nine hours waiting.
When he first arrived at the ED, Tayla said the hospital was "over 100% capacity", with 40 patients waiting in the ED at the same time as her father.
"There were also four doctors down and two nurses down after the shift."
Tayla said she was first called by the hospital at 1am, told he had collapsed and staff were doing CPR.
"When we got there, they put us in the family room and said that we needed to wait for the doctor, and in the meantime, there was a nurse that was standing at that door.
"Mum said to her, 'Can you just tell me if he's okay?' And she said, 'Yep'. The doctor then came in moments later and told us that they couldn't resuscitate him, and he had passed away. This was such a horrible experience and that nurse gave us a false sense of hope.
"Our whole world was flipped upside down."
She described her father as a "loving, caring person who could do anything for anyone".
"He had an absolute heart of gold. He was a really hard worker, but he also loved having a laugh and giving everyone a hard time.
"He was an incredible family man, a devoted husband to our mum, and he was the rock of our family. He was always there for us, no matter what.
"Dad was one of those people who made you feel safe and loved. He was our dad, but he was also our friend. We were lucky to have him, and it's safe to say that he deserves much better care than what he received."
The immediate clinical review of Brent's death called it an "acute unexpected incident". It also found that additional monitoring could not have changed the outcome.
When asked whether his family accepted the findings, Tayla said: "We do not accept the statement that additional monitoring would have changed the outcome."
Dr Richard Sullivan, Health NZ’s executive national director - clinical, told Stuff that had Brent been seen by a doctor, the outcome could have been different. He also apologised to his family.
Sophie Tomes, a nurse at North Shore Hospital and a New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate, spoke to 1News at the event – describing the challenges emergency departments faced across the country.
"It's really clear to see when the emergency department is over capacity," she said. "We get messages saying, 'we're going to have a second patient in our day lounge. We're pushing for discharges'.
"Unfortunately, a lot of people that might not quite be ready have been pushed out of the hospital just to make room for the beds.
"When you come onto a night shift, you have to work through the emergency department, and you always feel that sense of dread when you can see it just overflowing."
When asked about Brent's case, Tomes said: "Mistakes are happening".
"It's not good enough for the nurses or the patients to be put in those positions where we're forced to rationalise care, or we're rushing. It's really devastating."
Others who spoke at the event were Bernie Braithwaite, who said he was diagnosed with cancer through "sheer luck", and Gareth Hall, whose teenage daughter Maddie died by suicide in 2023.
Braithwaite discovered he had cancer two months after donating blood in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes. One of the drugs he needed to survive was not funded by Pharmac, saying it cost him $22,000 for a three-month supply.
He urged the politicians in attendance to view medication funding as an investment, not a cost.
"As long as we continue with a cost approach rather than an investment approach, we'll never build a valid case for not just making step-change but making leap-change in how we fund not just medicines but the health system in general," he said.
Hall said his daughter was let down by the health system for years.
"Those first three months were really an opportunity lost, where a difference could have been made before all of her symptoms, including self-harm, worsened because there was no one there to help her."
A coroner's report deemed there was no gross negligence that directly led to Maddie's death, but Hall said he "would still doubt that".
He urged policy changes to improve coroners' abilities to record and implement recommendations.
'Health system is basically on life support'
Patient advocate Malcolm Mulholland MNZM, one of the debate's mediators, told Breakfast the experiences of those who spoke showed New Zealand's health system was "becoming worse".
"We hear the analogy that the health system is basically on life support, and I think that's pretty close to the mark."
In the debate, Mt Roskill MP Carlos Cheung called for bipartisanship on health policy.
"We have different approaches to the healthcare system, but at the end of the day we all want a better health system for every single person here," he said.
He told those in attendance that successive governments had underfunded the system and that it needed investment in the workforce, infrastructure, more medicine, and mental health.
Labour's Phil Twyford, MP for Te Atatū, echoed a similar sentiment but did not commit to a specific policy.
"We do need to spend more on medicines, and we'll have something to say closer to the election," he said.
Opportunity's Northcote candidate Cody Marsh, who is a former paramedic, also spoke about bipartisanship.
"It's the only way this is going to survive consecutive governments," he said.
NZ First candidate Alfred Ngaro, a former National MP and Minister, called the healthcare system "broken".
"There's a lot of political promises that can be made to you... Funding is one part of it... We can talk about patient safety, but also if we don't have staff safety then we're missing the point."
He said it was important for the system to be "open and accountable".
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March supported "cross-party support" and taxing the "super rich" to adequately fund the system.
"We have enough to prevent privatisation, support our public health system, ensure we have enough nurses hired at the frontline, and to make sure we have defined Te Tiriti obligations."
ACT candidate Antonia Modkova said the party backed public health, but said the decision to choose public or private care "shouldn't matter".
"If a private provider can see a patient sooner, safely and get better outcomes, why should someone have to wait for the public service to build a new facility when it's available today in the private sector."
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