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East Care Accident and Medical in Botany, East Auckland.
Auckland’s only 24-hour private medical clinic in eastern and southern Auckland is scrapping its night service after more than 20 years due to concerns for staff and patient safety.
East Care Accident and Medical in Botany began its night service, between 11 p.m. M. And 7 a. M., 24 years ago, due to the “significant” need for night care in the community. Approximately 650 people visit it overnight per month.
But the situation has deteriorated and, in the face of mounting pressure, staff exhaustion, long waiting times and “spiraling clinical risk”, the service will close on Friday, December 18.
The overnight closure means residents of East and South Auckland will have no choice but to go to the Middlemore Hospital emergency department for after-hours medical care, putting further pressure on hospital wait times. and requires a long commute for some.
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Occurs when Counties Manukau Health notices that your ED is reaching capacity.
In a statement Monday, the DHB asked the community to visit their GP or an urgent care clinic when possible to keep the ER clear of life-threatening emergencies.
More than 563,000 people live in the wider Counties Manukau region.
East Care Group CEO Gordon Armstrong said it was a move made with “enormous regret” and not a decision that “we would never have voluntarily made.”
He said clinic staff know better than most the need for overnight medical assistance, but have found themselves “increasingly caught between a rock and a hard place”, to the point where they can no longer offer an “operation. safe and high-quality nightlife “. ”.
Eunika Sopotnicka
The East Care Group CEO says staff face security concerns while the clinic remains open overnight. (File photo)
Armstrong said independent research has shown East Care to be the highest volume provider of overnight primary care in Auckland, accounting for 33 percent of all urgent overnight presentations in the past quarter.
Will the closure affect you? Email [email protected]
“But the situation we find ourselves in now is not only unfair, it is unsustainable,” he said.
The service initially took off without a district health board or outside funding, but in 2014, Manukau Health counties agreed to help support the service as part of a regional initiative, Armstrong said.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / THINGS
The closure means those in South and East Auckland will only be able to seek medical care after hours at Middlemore Hospital. (File photo)
However, the DHB “reversed course” in 2018, and East Care continued to run the night clinic “whenever possible.”
“We took the attitude that our patients need us, so we had to keep holding on,” Armstrong said.
In November 2020, patient volumes increased significantly across the region, creating “significant” operational pressure. The situation worsened until December, when an East Care doctor went to another clinic, Armstrong said.
Last week, the overnight hiring physician reported that she was unprepared to go back to work overnight as she faced such high volumes, long wait times and an “unacceptable level of stress,” she said.
Armstrong said the shutdown comes when staff feel “coerced by the clinical safety issues we face and a very uneven funding environment.
“At this point, we were no longer simply considering a business equation. We were faced with a major ethical problem. “
Christopher Luxon, deputy for Manukau Botanical and Health Counties, has been contacted for comment.
