Hospital discharges elderly man at 3am

An elderly Christchurch woman says she felt bullied by an emergency department nurse to pick her husband up at 3am.

The incident comes as emergency departments around the country are reporting higher than usual demand, with pressure on staff to free up beds as soon as possible.

Brian Terris, 78, was taken to Christchurch Hospital just after midnight on March 13, suffering severe abdominal pain, nausea and low blood pressure.

A paramedic who treated him at home called an ambulance, concerned he might have a blocked bowel.

Terris’ wife, Joy, said a nurse became abusive when she said she could not pick her husband up three hours later.

‘‘They’ve got to stop treating the elderly like this. We don’t ask to go to hospital.’’

Staff took an X-ray which ruled out a bowel obstruction and gave him laxative medication but Brian was still in pain and nauseous at 6.30am when Joy came to collect him, she said.

Patients were discharged from Christchurch Hospital when they were medically well enough to go home at any time of the night or day ‘‘because of the need to manage the demand for beds and care’’, Christchurch Hospital general manager Pauline Clark said.

Staff were seeing more than 300 patients a day on at least three days a week, Clark said.

10 per cent increase

Middlemore Hospital in Auckland had a 10 per cent increase in emergency patient numbers in January compared with the previous year.

‘‘To put this into perspective, that means that each day Middlemore’s emergency department saw 30 more patients than expected,’’ acting chief medical officer Vanessa Thornton said.

Demand at the Wellington Regional Hospital emergency department had been at levels usually seen in winter, hospital and healthcare services general manager Chris Lowry said.

‘‘In 2017 around 178 people were coming to the emergency depart- ment over a 24-hour period, however numbers are currently sitting at around 187 and it is not uncommon to see more than 200 patients in a day.’’

Nurse consulted

Joy said her husband, who has diverticulitis, had not eaten for a week and despite visiting his doctor the previous day, continued to deteriorate.

She consulted her niece, a registered nurse, before calling 111.

Joy said she was not advised to join him at the hospital and she was worried about finding a car park at that time of night.

‘‘It was after midnight and I thought where am I going to park? I can’t walk down the street at this time of the night.’’

The couple had used the park and ride shuttle service to visit relatives in hospital previously but this was not available after hours.

At 3am a nurse called to say her husband ‘‘was all fixed now’’ and ready to be picked up.

‘‘I said: I’m not coming in at this time of the night,’’ Joy said.

The nurse said he would call a taxi for Brian.

When Joy asked who would pay the fare he said: ‘‘you will, this isn’t a hotel’’; before hanging up a short while later, Joy said.

‘‘It was only another three hours, I was there at 6.30am to pick him up,’’ Joy said.

Age Concern Canterbury chief executive Simon Townsend said the health system needed to be more responsive to the genuine needs of older people.

‘‘As older people, extra consideration has to be taken about when people are discharged.’’

Clarke said staff checked to ensure a patient could get home safely before discharging them, but that did ‘‘not extend to paying for transport home’’, she said.