City hospital battling very high demand

Flat-out ED staff treating minor injuries in armchairs to help cope with patient surge

Auckland City Hospital is struggling to cope with a huge increase in demand which has seen almost 200 people coming through the emergency department every day.

And the rush of extra patients — which has resulted in people with minor injuries being treated in armchairs rather than taking up a bed — is not an occurrence isolated to Auckland, according to a medical union.

Auckland District Health Board chief executive Ailsa Claire yesterday sent a memo to all staff acknowledging it had been busier than usual for this time of year and praising staff.

Presentations in Auckland City Hospital’s emergency department topped 200 four days in a row last week — in a usual week there would be no more than two days where staff treated that many people.

Director of adult medical services Barry Snow said the emergency department had recorded 7 per cent growth on last year while the inpatient unit was up 3 per cent.

The hospital was averaging about 199 people through the emergency department each day but at this time last year it was about 187, he said.

“We’ve never treated so many people,” he said.

Snow said per cent capacity had been in the high 90s and had hit 100 a couple of times recently.

On top of that, there had been an increase in the severity of the illnesses being treated.

Part of the reason for the increase in patients came down to population growth but modern medicine also played a part, Snow said.

“We’re definitely seeing sicker people. We’re seeing older people as well. Part of this is the miracle of modern medicine. They are surviving their illnesses now.”

But while people may survive illnesses they wouldn’t have in the past, they were often left with chronic illnesses which resulted in them coming back to hospital.

The district health board had begun to implement measures usually reserved for the busy winter months, Snow said.

To manage the increase the hospital was treating people with minor injuries in armchairs rather than allocating a bed, standardising care for certain conditions, putting more staff on, and focusing on supporting people in their homes.

“At times it feels like we’re as busy as we can cope with, which is quite hard for our staff,” Snow said.

The executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Ian Powell, said he was hearing of increased demand in hospitals around the country.

He believed a lot of it came down to prolonged poverty in the community and the ageing population.

Powell was concerned about the increased pressure it put on already stretched medical staff.

“Our concern is that we already have an absurdly high level of burnout among hospital specialists.”

Last year about 50 per cent of those surveyed said they were burned out, he said.