‘Weekend warriors’ clog A&E
Health board issues warning to athletes who head to hospital with minor injuries. Jeffrey Kitt and Nicholas McBride report.
Janine Jordaan has experienced her fair share of going through the pain barrier.
The former netballer has undergone three ankle reconstructions in three years since 2013, even playing through serious injury during her final games in 2015.
‘‘I was determined not to lose, knowing it was my last game of netball,’’ she said. ‘‘I have plastic ankles now.’’ Jordaan, from Marlborough, is one of thousands of sports nuts who turn out every week to club matches up and down the country.
But now some district health boards are putting ‘‘weekend warriors’’ on notice.
The Nelson Marlborough DHB says minor sports injuries are making it harder to treat patients in actual emergencies, and athletes need to reconsider whether their injury is urgent.
And other DHBs had similar recommendations for nonurgent sports patients.
Waikato Hospital emergency department clinical director Dr John Bonning said patients with minor sports injuries were redirected to local care clinics or had a very long wait ahead of them.
‘‘Our ED is simply too busy to see these,’’ he said.
MidCentral District Health Board hospital services operations director Lyn Horgan added that serious patients were prioritised.
‘‘We encourage people to keep the emergency department for emergencies only,’’ she said.
Kiwi sports fans are brought up on the legendary stories of All Blacks Colin Meads (broken arm) and Wayne Shelford (torn scrotum) playing on through the pain barrier.
But it is not broken arms or worse clogging up the emergency department, but strains and sprains.
Waitohi Rugby Football Club president Rob Beattie, of Picton, said managerial staff had a duty of care to players.
‘‘You have to be careful with how bad it is. Where line?’’ he said.
‘‘If it’s swollen, how do you know whether it’s broken? This is why they are doctors and nurses, to determine that.’’
Tony Walsh, chairman of Wests Rugby in Wellington, said undersourced emergency departments were an issue in the capital, with one player waiting six hours for eyebrow stitches last week.
Walsh said he understood why some people were quick to have their injuries examined.
‘‘Players are more injuryconscious these days. When you’re talking about concussions, there has been a shift in mindset for the longterm impact of injuries,’’ he said.
‘‘I wouldn’t describe it as players going soft, it is the awareness of the long-lasting impact these injuries can have.’’
Jordaan, the Marlborough Netball Centre manager, had since ended her playing career and said she had noticed a shift in the way players approached injury.
‘‘Players go to the emergency department as a precaution, a lot of the times it’s because of a scare,’’ she said.
Wairau Hospital in Blenheim wants winter sports players to rethink their treatment options.
The hospital had nearly twice the ED patients of the national average per capita this time last year, and had launched a campaign to lower that number.
Emergency medicine specialist Andrew Morgan said the message was getting across, but athletes were prime offenders in heading straight to ED when hurt.
‘‘Quite often people arrive at ED having clearly come straight off the playing field. They are still in uniform, muddy and haven’t taken the basic first aid steps,’’ he said.
Although after-hours medical clinics remained an option, some sports clubs were concerned the request for players to determine the severity of injuries could lead to incorrect self-diagnosis. Quite often people arrive at ED having clearly come straight off the playing field. They are still in uniform, muddy and haven’t taken the basic first aid steps. emergency medicine specialist do you draw the