EDs ‘safe’ despite ballooning waiting times, says minister

Health Minister Andrew Little says ballooning wait times across emergency departments, where hundreds are waiting 24 hours to be admitted or discharged each month, are a problem the Labour Government inherited.

His comments come after clinicians raised serious concerns about systemwide hospital issues decades in the making which they say are worsening as the sector grapples with widespread staffing shortages. Delays in treatment increase the likelihood of a mistake, they say.

Despite the concerns, Little said EDs are ‘‘totally safe’’.

‘‘For the month of August over 100,000 patients went to an ED. Some people are waiting longer for treatment . . . they’re not neglected and ignored, they get care and attention until their bed is freed up or they get the treatment that they need,’’ he said yesterday. ‘‘I’m confident that our system is working overtime to fill the gaps that we’ve got. We are getting record numbers of new nurses registering as nurses to work in our system.’’

He said the data, which showed huge discrepancies in how many people were waiting more than 24 hours in ED by region, did not undermine the health reforms, the main purpose of which was to end the ‘‘postcode lottery’’ of care.

‘‘We are into month five of a massive reform so any claim that somehow postcode lottery was going to be fixed on

‘‘For the month of August over 100,000 patients went to an ED. Some people are waiting longer for treatment . . . they’re not neglected and ignored.’’ Health Minister Andrew Little

day one and not five is patently ridiculous,’’ he said. ‘‘I think these numbers highlight the very problem that we’ve inherited – the fact there was such a difference between EDs on getting patients through.’’

MidCentral was a huge outlier with the 286 people – nearly half of the national total – waiting an entire day in the ED in August. It has been consistently worse by a wide margin since at least July last year and has faced some ‘‘long-standing problems and challenges’’, he said.

Leadership of Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, the new organisation overseeing the health system, was working with Palmerston North Hospital to improve patient flow, but that would take time, he said.

Waikato was the second-worst performer for August, with 78 people waiting more than 24 hours, followed by Southern with 67.