One in 10 abandoning hospital waiting times

18–19 A dozen or more people every day seeking emergency help at Palmerston North Hospital are giving up on the wait.

In the 12 months to the end of last month, between 6 per cent and a peak of 15 per cent of people in June who presented at the overcrowded emergency department later left without proper assessment and treatment.

Between 221 and 587 people a month arrived by ambulance and even one in 10 of those did not wait.

Up to one in five patients was not seen within the six-hour wait target.

The information about walk-outs was provided in response to Stuff inquiries.

In addition, some background about 20–21 22 the pressures on the department and steps being taken to relieve them will be presented to Midcentral District Health Board members tomorrow.

Midcentral Health acute and elective specialist services operations executive Lyn Horgan said the number of people not waiting was on the rise.

That was partly caused by the overall increase in people coming into the department, up 6 per cent in a year, compared with national increases of 2 per cent.

The recently renovated department was not coping with the numbers, with about 129 people coming in each day.

‘‘Staff work diligently to provide the best possible care to patients, however, the current layout of the ED is not fit for purpose and was never intended to handle the current volume of presentations.’’

The department was increasingly running on red status, described as 23 24–28 ‘‘critical care capacity deficit – the service is operating in a critically degraded state with negative consequences apparent’’.

Horgan said reception and triage staff did their best to ensure the most acute cases were seen as soon as possible. ‘‘However, we also appreciate that the waiting times, especially during busy periods, may be too long for some people.’’

Some people were redirected to seek free help from primary care providers and others made the decision to go back to their general practice themselves.

Horgan said staff tried to check on patients, their family or GP team if they were concerned about them having left without full treatment.

The hospital has put extra staff into the department and was working with community health providers and ward managers to help move people more quickly through the department.