Hospitals stretched

Clyde: Dunstan Hospital was swamped with patients in December and routinely had to move patients elsewhere.

A Southern District Health Board committee meeting yesterday was told Dunstan, which has 24 beds, regularly had more than 30 inpatients late last year.

Several patients had to be transferred to Lakes District Hospital in Queenstown, but as it only has 10 inpatient beds, other hospitals also had to be called on.

Gore Hospital had also been significantly over capacity at times during the holiday period, with Clutha Health First the only rural facility with any real capacity to speak of, the meeting heard.

A surge plan had since been developed to try to manage patient flow in regional hospitals and ensure acute cases could still be treated locally.