Patient has 26-hour wait
A hectic Labour Weekend in Taranaki’s emergency department saw one patient with pneumonia wait 26 hours in an ED bed before being admitted to a ward.
The situation, which Taranaki District Health Board (TDHB) attributed to an unusually busy weekend in the emergency department (ED) and five staff calling in sick, prompted a medical professional to urge the patient and their family to lay a formal complaint.
The patient, who did not want to be named, was told by the staff member that their stay in an ED bed was record-breaking and it wasn’t acceptable for someone to be there for 26 hours when they should be in a ward.
But in a statement, TDHB chief operating officer Gillian Campbell said while patients had a right to complain she would not expect staff to ask them to.
She would follow up with staff who worked over the weekend and there would be a ‘‘review if required’’.
Despite the long wait, the patient, who was one of 313 through the ED’s doors between Saturday and Monday, praised staff for their care, saying they were always tended to quickly and with a smile.
The family said they felt for the staff as they were run off their feet and doing the best they could given the circumstances.
Campbell said she was aware of only one complaint over the weekend and put the long wait down to high numbers in both the ED and wards, as well as three serious accidents arriving on Sunday which took priority.
‘‘While it is always our aim to move patients through the ED as quickly as possible, at times patients may experience longer waits for clinical reasons, high demand or the lack of available beds in the inpatients wards.
‘‘We are very sorry that the unusually busy circumstances at Taranaki Base Hospital resulted in a long period of time spent in ED observation for this patient.’’
Another patient said she waited seven hours without being seen. Sunita Torrance called Healthline after falling off a stage during a cabaret show in New Plymouth on Saturday night and began experiencing concussion symptoms the next morning.
Torrance, a first-aid teacher and former nurse, said she knew how strained ED could be so called Healthline first and was told to go to ED immediately.
When she got there the wait time was five hours. She waited seven and eventually had to leave without being seen.
‘‘I understand triage but it would have taken a couple of minutes to do a concussion test and send me off if they wanted to,’’ Torrance said.
The potential concussion meant Torrance could not drive.
She had to leave at 11.30pm to get a ride home.
Torrance said while she was waiting she saw a lot of people walk out after failing to be seen.
Torrance said first-aid courses teach that head injuries need to be taken seriously and to see a medical professional immediately. ‘‘Instead they gave me painkillers which would subdue any symptoms and you are not going to get a true test.’’
Overburdened EDs can result in longer patient waiting times, staff fatigue, and errors, the TDHB 2017 Health Action Plan reported.
The Ministry of Health target is for 95 per cent of patients to be admitted, discharged, or transferred from an ED within six hours. In 2017/18 Taranaki ED achieved this for an average of
91.4 per cent of patients. The ED saw about 34,000 patients in 2018.
Arrivals are seen in order of priority, a process known as triage.
Patients are categorised from
1, being immediately life threatening; 2, imminently life threatening or time critical; 3, potentially life threatening; 4, being potentially serious or potential adverse outcomes from delay; and
5, being non-urgent.
TDHB said those classed in the 4 and 5 categories, such as earaches, some broken bones, infections and check-ups, should call Healthline or go to their family doctor, MediCross Medical Centre or Phoenix Urgent Doctors before going to the ED.
Of the 313 patients over the weekend, 45 were category 1 and
2, and 167 were category 3, with
111 patients in category 4 and 5. New Plymouth woman Sue Duncan said her experience in the emergency department over the weekend was excellent.
On Friday, her husband was suddenly unable to walk and medics suspected he was having a stroke. He was seen straight away at the ED and admitted to a ward within three hours.
‘‘The care was absolutely outstanding in every way. At times there were three doctors.
‘‘He had two CT scans, they spoke to the stroke unit in Auckland, they spoke to neurology in Wellington, and they kept me well-informed because it was very frightening.’’
Duncan said she had got ‘‘really hacked off’’ in the past waiting in the ED but this experience helped her realise how things worked behind the scenes when something happened that required all hands on deck.