Another ‘code red’ at Wairarapa Hospital

For the second time this month Wairarapa District Health Board has declared a ‘‘code red’’ at its main hospital in Masterton.

Chief medical officer Shawn Sturland said with all its beds full on Tuesday, capacity was stretched beyond what was manageable and some elective surgeries were cancelled in order to treat urgent need.

‘‘Patient safety is first and foremost. The considerable inconvenience for someone in having their surgery delayed is well understood – so our patients can be assured that if it happens, we have had unavoidable reasons for doing so.’’

The DHB called a code red on Tuesday and the designation remained in place for the whole day and was lifted yesterday.

Sturland admitted that the effect of people having surgery appointments cancelled and pushed back could be ‘‘a disaster’’ from a personal perspective.

Staff shortages, workforce strikes and code reds could have the net effect of pushing some elective surgeries out to as much as a year.

The Ministry of Health maximum waiting list time for orthopaedic operations was four months.

The acute load on Wairarapa

Hospital has been particularly high in recent months and a shortage of staff has put the entire system under pressure.

Wairarapa Hospital has 74 inpatient beds, but managing their use was a ‘‘complex business’’, Sturland said.

In a code red the AAU’s (Acute Assessment Unit) beds could be reassigned to admitted patients. Normally the AAU was a short stay unit for non-critical medical patients.