Costly GP visits blamed for pressure on emergency departments

By RNZ

The high cost of GP visits and long wait times are pushing many hospital emergency departments to the limit, warns the senior doctors union.

Hawke’s Bay Hospital has been using medical and surgical daybeds to cope with the overflow of emergency room patients; Palmerston North Hospital staff have run out of hallway space to treat patients, and the SUs at Dunedin and Whangārei hospitals are often over-capacity.

The Waikato and Lakes DHBs have also issued warnings citing pressure on emergency departments.

The executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Sarah Dalton, said that while there were fewer respiratory illnesses this year, hospitals were still seeing “winter numbers” and there were no signs of the usual “fall before Christmas.”

“They should have closed their winter beds by now, but in places like Rotorua they keep them open. In some hospitals, there has even been talk of cutting elective beds to handle the situation, which is not a good solution.”

“Emergency medicine specialists are at the edge of their wits, saying they simply can’t do more with the resources they have.”

Many ED patients had postponed seeing a GP or having a prescription filled due to cost, and their condition had deteriorated to the point of needing emergency treatment.

Others were making the emergency department their first port of call.

“It is a clear sign that something is wrong in our healthcare system if people wait more than six hours to be seen in the emergency department,” Dalton said.

GP shortages, particularly in poorer communities, were fueling the problem, he said.

“The financing model for primary health, the business model, is not working. We need some adequate resources.

“Specialists and other emergency department personnel are pushing themselves to the limit and working in high pressure environments, which are becoming unsafe for them and their patients,” Dalton said.