Patient overload cripples hospital

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Patients are spending up to 15 hours in the Palmerston North Hospital’s emergency department, as staff struggle to clear a massive backlog.

The hospital has hit crisis point, announcing its 350 beds were all full this week, with multiple patients unable to be admitted.

Patients were forced to wait in the emergency department until beds became available.

Meanwhile, the start of winter, combined with Queen’s Birthday Weekend, has prompted fresh fears the problem could continue.

One patient, Viti Barker, said she had to wait 15 hours from admission to discharge.

Barker went into hospital on Sunday, at 2pm, and was finally released at 5am the next day.

Nearly 130 people went to the emergency department each day over that weekend.

People have since been warned that there will be ‘‘significant delays’’ and have been urged to go to their GP instead.

Barker said she waited so long that she went home part way through her wait.

She got a chest X-ray at 10pm, and then waited until 2am to have a blood test.

She was eventually seen by a doctor at 4.30am and was cleared at 5am.

‘‘All the while I was coughing and spluttering and had shortness of breath.’’

Barker said an elderly man came in from Otaki at 10pm after he had a fall.

‘‘When I was discharged at 5am, he was still there.’’

She said the waiting room was so full that it was standing room only at times.

Barker had been unsure if she should go to hospital, but called the health line and explained her symptoms.

‘‘I was having trouble breathing and was coughing up dark phlegm. They advised me I might need a chest X-ray.

‘‘If you go to the doctor you have to pay $50 for them to say I have to get a chest X-ray. It was a catch-22 situation.’’

Midcentral District Health Board hospital services operations director Lyn Horgan said 15 patients waited overnight for admission Wednesday.

Four patients had been waiting for a bed, as of Friday morning.

‘‘The consequence of this event is that there is limited space in ED to see new patients as they arrive. They are unable to discharge or admit patients fast enough to keep up with demand.’’

Horgan said this was a rare occurrence and it had not been experienced at the hospital for several years.

Normally, the flow of patients improved over a 24- to 48-hour period and settled back to normal after 48 to 72 hours.

‘‘The concern for Palmerston North Hospital is that we are about to go into a long weekend at the beginning of winter, which may delay the recovery period,’’ Horgan said.

She said patients with an emergency condition or injury should still go to the hospital. ‘‘We ask that they be understanding of our situation and to be aware that staff are working at their maximum capacity.’’

Robin Gauld, founding director of Otago University’s Centre for Health Systems, said such influxes had other impacts.

‘‘You don’t want stress in your system. I’m sure everyone will be doing their best, but they will be under pressure and that is not good for anyone.

‘‘Patients are harmed when people are under stress.’’

Gauld said patient surges were common for all DHBS, especially over winter.

He said access to care was an important issue and the hospital would need to evaluate if there were barriers preventing people getting care from other areas.

Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-galloway said DHBS were not given enough funding to keep up with population growth. ‘‘This seems like an obvious consequence of that.’’

The most vulnerable people would be the ones worst affected, he said.

‘‘The people who suffer are the vast majority of people who can’t afford to pay for private care. Only those who can afford to go private can get a reasonable standard of care.’’

The hospital has asked people who do not have an emergency condition or injury to seek other health providers. to a ward on