New Zealand hospitals in crisis after ‘biggest January and February on record’

By Tess Brunton of RNZ

Hospitals across the country have reached a crisis point, with several emergency departments maxed out.

People are being treated in the corridors, more and more staff are reporting burnout, and wait times are getting longer.

In the past 48 hours, Dunedin Hospital and Whangārei Hospital reached full capacity, asking people to stay in the ER for emergencies only.

Now doctors across the country say it’s a national problem that, without support, is only going to get worse.

Dr. John Bonning, president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said that the emergency department was where stress was most visible, but that the entire system was under increasing pressure.

“Patients are stuck. They are in the hallways. They spend six, eight, 12 hours in the emergency department, where we are forced to try to provide longitudinal care,” Dr. Bonning said.

Some ER shifts operated with only two-thirds of their normal number of nurses.

“So it’s about the sickest and most injured patients not being admitted to the ward and we try to take care of them while we wait for the beds in the ward to be available.”

It was easier to delineate hospitals that didn’t have a bigger problem than to name those that did, he said.

“Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has a problem with this. We’ve had the biggest January and February on record.”

The president of the College of Emergency Nurses, Sue Stebbings, said the crisis point had been building for years.

“Some of the main challenges are for nurses to continue to handle more patients presenting while working with fewer staff,” Stebbings said.

“Sometimes space is not available, so corridor spaces are used in many departments. There is not enough staff to open the new areas where new departments have been built and also the challenge of continuing to care for patients while they wait for transfers. to wards, often for extended periods of time. “

Emergency nurses often struggled with constant fatigue from increased demands when they just wanted to provide the best possible care, he said.

“It’s quite distressing when that is not possible. They are overwhelmed … there can be delays in care, so if someone needs medication for pain relief, sometimes they have to juggle that need with something else, and while she wants to get things done as fast as possible, that’s also nerve-wracking for the nurses. “

The president of the New Zealand Medical Association, Dr Kate Baddock, said the problem did not start with emergency departments, which was right where it was most visible.

GPs were overwhelmed by a higher workload, there were not enough doctors, more patients and not enough support, he said.

That was leading more people to go to the emergency services as they faced wait times of up to four weeks.

“So we have a chronic problem exacerbated by an acute problem related to getting enough doctors … and then we have people delaying care due to Covid and access related issues,” said Dr. Baddock.

“You are done with this tsunami of patients who need to be seen.”

He wants the government to free the flow of international doctors coming to Aotearoa.

Dunedin Hospital declared a code black (critical situation) yesterday after reaching capacity.

At one point, 18 patients were stuck in the Emergency Department waiting for a bed with only three available in the wards.

Southern DHB Medical Director Nigel Millar said there is now enough room capacity to receive patients.

Capital & Coast DHB said Wellington Hospital had too small a ED to meet the rising acute demand. There were not enough inpatient beds throughout the hospital, he said.

Waitematā DHB reported considerable congestion at North Shore and Waitākere hospitals, where they consistently saw more than the daily average of 150 presentations per hospital between October and December.

Today, Whangārei Hospital called for people to stay away from the emergency department unless it is an emergency. The apartment was full.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 246 people arrived at the emergency department; on the same days last year, there were 138 patients.

Northland DHB Surgical and Support Services Manager Mark McGinley said many hospital beds were full and that was having an impact on inpatient admissions.

Dr Bonning will meet tomorrow with Health Minister Andrew Little to ask for more support for a system that is under increasing pressure.

Without support, he said they were at a crisis point with a possible harsh winter on the way.