Hospital full again as winter takes hold

It's not uncommon for a hospital to be full after a weekend.

Palmerston North Hospital again reached capacity this week as overwhelming numbers of people seek treatment.

The hospital was full again on Monday morning, just weeks after people were asked to avoid it because of its shortage of beds and instead visit their GPS.

A Midcentral spokeswoman said the backlog of patients had ‘‘returned to a reasonable state’’ by the end of May. However, the emergency department still had a high number of patients, she said.

The spokeswoman said it was not uncommon for the hospital to be full after a weekend.

Patients from the weekendbacklog were expected to be discharged, which would help return the situation to normal. She did not expect the hospital to have capacity problems in the future, but the spokeswoman said situations such as increases in influenza or motor vehicle accidents could change that.

Although winter was a busy time of year for general practices, Bob Lissington, from The Palms Medical Centre, said he had not noticed any extreme patient trends.

The medical centre would be able to take in extra patients overflowing from the emergency department if needed, he said. He was unsure why people tended to go to the emergency department rather than their GP, but said cost could be a factor. Mondays and Fridays were also the busiest times of the week for the centre.

Hokowhitu Medical Centre practice manager Gail Lambess said June, July and August were the busiest months, as winter brought cold and flu illnesses along with it. Although the practice was busy, this time of year was no different to 2016.

In late May, many patients were turned away from the hospital, as all 350 beds were full.

Patients were also spending up to 15 hours in the emergency department, as staff struggled to clear a massive backlog. People were forced to wait in the emergency department until beds became available and at times there was only enough room to stand.