Wellington ICU snowed under

Wellington Hospital’s intensive care unit is facing such high demand it is asking for daily updates from regional hospitals that have free beds, and shifting some high-risk cases to private providers, according to a leaked letter.

The anonymous letter to members of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society calls the situation a ‘‘crisis’’.

Some patients had already been transferred, and no elective surgeries had been performed at the hospital for three weeks, it said. ‘‘There are currently a number of inpatients awaiting cardiac surgery in Wellington Hospital,’’ it said.

These included at least two patients with critical diseases and ‘‘unstable symptoms’’.

Capital & Coast District Health Board confirmed on Friday it was ‘‘currently experiencing high demand from acute patients’’.

‘‘While elective surgeries are still being performed, we have had to defer some complex surgeries because the patient would require an ICU bed afterward,’’ general manager hospital and healthcare services Chris Lowry said.

The leaked letter said an increase in the physical size of the unit was the only solution to the problem.

An extension with six new beds was planned to be functional by July. But ‘‘significant extra staffing’’ would be needed for those beds to be made available to patients.

The letter said patients might have to be transferred for neurosurgery, cardiology, and cardiothoracic surgery.

‘‘Wellington intensive care unit is facing extreme demand for resources, and we need the support of all ICUs in order to reduce risk to patients in our region.

‘‘Many high-risk ICU patients are being managed in the private sector, which is not ideal.’’

An intensive care specialist attached to another large DHB said the rest of New Zealand could not solve Wellington’s problem. ‘‘Nobody has any slack or beds to offer other regions.’’

One Wellington patient was reported last week as saying a scheduled heart valve surgery had been cancelled three times in the past eight weeks, and that they had been told an ICU bed would not be available before Christmas.

Lowry said Wellington Hospital had ‘‘a very busy ICU’’, which had about 1500 admissions a year. Almost 57 per cent of patients were from other regions.

The hospital provides intensive care and ‘‘high-dependency services’’ for Wellington and the central regions from Hawke’s Bay to Nelson.

Lowry said cardiac, major orthopaedic (spinal), vascular and gastro-intestinal surgeries were mostly affected.

‘‘We are working with other tertiary-level DHBs and the private sector to minimise the impact on, and risk to, patients.

‘‘This is standard practice for DHBs with a busy ICU experiencing high volumes.’’

It was expected three of the hospital’s ‘‘long-stay’’ ICU patients would be moved out in the next week.

She said the upcoming ICU expansion would help the hospital to increase its complex surgeries by 100 a year, and reduce deferrals.

"While elective surgeries are still being performed, we have had to defer some complex surgeries because the patient would require an ICU bed afterward." General manager hospital and healthcare services Chris Lowry