Public faces lengthy delays as ED wait times blow out

There is more to do and turning the health system around will take time.

Andrew Little

Nearly all New Zealand hospitals are failing to meet the Government’s emergency department wait time targets, with thousands of patients experiencing delays longer than six hours to be examined.

One patient at Palmerston North Hospital waited more than 48 hours to be examined after arriving at ED, data released under the Official Information Act shows.

Eighteen out of 20 district health boards failed to reach the “95 per cent of patients turning up to ED seen within six hours” target between October and December last year, which was the latest data available.

Overall, Capital and Coast had the worst rates in the country, with

64.9 per cent of patients visiting its ED seen within six hours.

The next worse performing DHBs were Palmerston North (73.1 per cent), Hawke’s Bay (74.1 per cent), and Counties Manukau (79 per cent).

The only DHBs to achieve the target were West Coast (95.7 per cent) and Taira¯whiti (95.5 per cent).

The data comes after the Herald on Thursday reported a “healthy”

50-year-old woman with a brain bleed showed up at South Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital and was apparently told by ED staff there would be a eight-hour wait to be examined.

Frustrated, she left and returned hours later but it was too late.

She died the next day, a doctor working at the hospital told the Herald. In response, Counties Manukau DHB’s acting chief executive Dr Pete Watson said yesterday they had launched an “urgent investigation” into the circumstances of the patient leaving the hospital.

“In the early hours of Wednesday morning a patient presented to our emergency department who then left only to return a few hours later following a life-threatening emergency,” Watson said.

“This patient has died in ICU. “Our deepest sympathy to the family,” he said.

National Party health spokesman Shane Reti said yesterday lessons needed to be learned from any contribution that long waiting times played in the woman’s death.

Health Minister Andrew Little said hospital management had advised him the facts of the case weren’t fully known and an investigation was under way to establish them.

Reti criticised Labour, saying they couldn’t just throw money at the health system and expect results.

“The stressed health system needs real doctors, not spin doctors.”

On Thursday, Little cited “years of neglect and underinvestment” in the health system, and said Labour had taken a number of steps to turn that around.

“This includes properly funding the health system and reforming the structures that prevent it from working as well as it could. There is more to do and turning the health system around will take time.”