Hospital wanted Ardern’s grandad, 85, out near midnight
That is not good enough and that is what this election is about. New Zealand can do better than that.
Waikato Hospital has apologised to Jacinda Ardern for trying to discharge her 85-year-old grandfather at 11.30pm on Tuesday night.
The Labour leader was speaking at a Nelson GreyPower meeting yesterday morning when she raised the issue of her grandfather’s treatment by the hospital.
“My grandfather was in hospital yesterday in Waikato. At 11.30 at night they tried to discharge him,” she said.
“He lives an hour away from the hospital and he’s 85 years old.”
Ardern said her grandfather refused to leave and was allowed to stay the night.
She did not blame the people working in the health system who were “doing a fabulous job”, but the hospital had no room for him.
“Waikato Hospital is full. It’s full. And that’s the kind of choices that the people working in our system are having to make.
“That is not good enough and that is what this election is about. Turning that around.
“New Zealand can do better than that. Our health service can do better than that.”
Speaking later yesterday she confirmed a family member was involved in a discussion to allow her grandfather to remain in hospital.
She said the fact Waikato Hospital could not take admissions suggested the district health board was underfunded.
“They essentially are full. And it just happens to be that my grand- father was one of many people who’ll be experiencing the impact of that, including staff who work there.”
Asked to respond to Ardern’s criticism, Brett Paradine, executive director Waikato Hospital Services, said the hospital had been full for the past few days and the Emergency Department had been overloaded.
“The hospital is now back on track but still very busy, as is our Emergency Department.”
Paradine said he couldn’t comment on an individual patient.
“It is our expectation not to discharge anyone without making a clinical assessment that they were safe to discharge and that they had the appropriate supports in place.
“We are sorry that this experience has caused concern for the family and we would be happy to talk to them and look into the circumstances around this situation.”
Ardern was speaking to GreyPower members about Labour’s plans for the mental health and health system.
Waikato Hospital confirmed it was “overloaded”, writing on Facebook yesterday: “Today our Emergency Department at Waikato Hospital is in overload and Waikato Hospital is full.
“Because of this situation and for the safety of our patients we have to reschedule patients for elective surgery that are not cancer or emergency-type surgeries.”
Jacinda Ardern