Nurse’s plea from Wellington ED ‘horror’ scenes
A laminated card providing frustrated patients with Health Minister Andrew Little’s contact details was common knowledge in the Wellington emergency department.
A mother recounted how a Wellington Hospital nurse passed one such card to her as she faced ‘‘horror’’ scenes in the emergency department, while her daughter suffered from severe pneumonia with a temperature of 40C.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate Serena Gray said the small laminated cards were kept in a bag in the triage unit and were ‘‘not a secret’’. The contact details directed patients to Little’s parliamentary office.
But Te Whatu Ora’s interim director for the district, Dr John Tait, said ‘‘so far’’ their investigation had not found any evidence the cards were handed out.
Gray said the cards were a response to the frustration nurses felt in the face of abuse from sick patients facing lengthy wait times.
The mother who received a card, who asked not to be named, took her 14-year-old daughter to the ED on Saturday, November 5, on the advice of her doctor.
They went to the emergency department and were eventually called to see a triage nurse who told them there was a six-hour wait and 52 people were ahead of them on the list.
They went home where they checked in with the GP who told them to get straight back to hospital.
‘‘In a terrifying car trip into hospital, my daughter couldn’t speak. She asked to lie flat in the car, she was finding breathing difficult, her temperature had spiked to 40C, and her heart rate was 135bpm.’’
After triage, a nurse arrived, then a house surgeon, then a registrar – all were compassionate and professional, the mother said. While they waited for results, she talked to a nurse.
‘‘I observed that the system looked to be broken. She nodded in agreement. She said that if I was at all motivated, I should contact Health Minister Andrew Little.
‘‘His office email and phone number were on a card which the nurse handed me.’’
When her daughter was admitted, they walked back through the main area of the emergency department.
‘‘It looked like a scene from a movie, a horror one. Every cubicle and every corridor was full.’’
The cards were not an attack on Little, Gray said, but ne needed to know what patients were experiencing. She agreed with Little’s comments on Monday that problems with access to primary care, such as GP clinics, were causing the pressure in hospitals.