Hospital regularly at bursting point

‘‘We are seeing a lot of influenza-like illness and other winter illness.’’ Lyn Horgan, Midcentral DHB hospital services operations director

More people are flooding through the doors of Palmerston North Hospital with winter ills and there’s often little room to spare.

Hospital services operations director Lyn Horgan said more staff and resources were needed to manage the high demand on hospital services.

However, the hospital was coping with the increase in demand, she said.

The number of days the hospital has operated at, or near, capacity has more than doubled in the past financial year.

Figures released under the Official Information Act show that in the past year, the hospital was almost full on 136 days. That’s well up on the previous year, when there were 52 days at or near capacity.

The average bed occupancy for 2016-17 was 95 per cent. This increased from 91 per cent the previous year.

Other hospitals throughout New Zealand were experiencing increased demand for services this winter, Horgan said.

‘‘We are seeing a lot of influenza-like illness and other winter illness.’’

The hospital was managing the pressure with more staff and resources, and by prioritising services, she said.

People were being encouraged to go to their GP early and the hospital was making sure patients were discharged early when well enough.

The hospital adjusted to the seasons, having more beds available in winter.

‘‘We are coping with the increased demand and are appreciative of the support of the public and the extra efforts of our fantastic staff.’’

There was some flow-on effect to the emergency department. If the hospital bed status was full or near-capacity and ED had patients it needed to move into other units, this would affect patient flow she said. ‘‘However, ED can have high volumes of patients in the department impacting upon their ability to manage, and this will be regardless of the number of beds available on the ward.’’

When ED was very busy, nonurgent patients ‘‘may wait many hours to be seen’’.

Those patients probably did need to see a doctor, but their treatment and recovery would not be affected by an initial wait, Horgan said. ‘‘When the department is busy, staff are aware that communication of an individual’s progress toward admission or discharge can be limited. This is not intentional and staff are always sorry when this has occurred.’’

Horgan also said there were pressures ‘‘across the board’’ for hospital staff.

They worked in a constantly changing environment, were inundated with information and had to prioritise their work.

Otago University pro vicechancellor and business school dean Robin Gauld said an increase in patient numbers could be significant for hospitals.

‘‘We are talking about staff having to take up increasing numbers of patients.

‘‘It affects the whole hospital, not just the emergency department.’’

Although it can be ‘‘quite a balancing act’’, district health boards had ways of coping with pressure on their services, including being able to predict patient flow through monitoring systems.

Gauld said there needed to be a greater focus on primary healthcare in communities, and this would help reduce the pressure on health boards.