Wait at hospital worst in years
More than half of people who need treatment in hospital are sitting in Waikato Hospital’s emergency department for more than six hours.
And the long wait times are putting patients at risk and leading to worse health outcomes – which includes avoidable deaths, health professionals say.
Data showed – in the last quarter of 2021/22 – 9564 people were admitted to Waikato Hospital from its emergency department but only 44% made it to a ward in less than six hours. This was the worst it has been in five years. The data, obtained from Te Whatu Ora via the Official Information Act, showed Waikato Hospital was one of six hospitals where the six-hour target was met less than half the time in that period. Palmerston North Hospital was the worst by far, with 29% of people being admitted to a ward from the emergency room in less than six hours.
The long wait times were symptomatic of worsening systemwide pressures in the health system, Dr Kate Allan, New Zealand chairperson of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said. This made it increasingly hard for emergency department staff to admit patients into hospital beds.
‘‘This leads to patients enduring longer waits in the emergency department, following initial treatment and assessment, which can lead to worse patient outcomes – that can include avoidable deaths.’’
There has been a spate of highprofile deaths including a pregnant woman who died after a delayed admission in Palmerston North, a 4-year-old who died from a throat infection in Wellington after nine hours in the ED, a woman who died after leaving Middlemore Hospital ED because of a long wait, and a patient who presented to a busy Christchurch ED, left and later died in intensive care.
Allan said these issues had been building for years and were not caused by Covid-19. It was a lack of health resources, including shortages in the healthcare workforce and hospital beds – and processes not keeping up with the rising population or the increasing complexity of health needs, as well as insufficient access to community healthcare. Allan said college members reported particular concern for elderly people forced to endure long waits for beds – sometimes over 24 hours – in emergency departments.
The situation was ‘‘really challenging’’ and only getting worse, College of Emergency Nurses chairperson Sue Stebbeings said.
This was the worst it had ever been, she said – and the longer people waited, the bigger the risk.
Stebbeings said wait times were amplified by many factors, which included staff shortages, physical space constraints, and large numbers of people with priority medical issues.
‘‘We acknowledge that for many people there are very long wait times. It would be great if there was a simple answer. We do our best to provide what people need but when there is more need than people, it does mean a long wait.’’
A lack of beds available in a ward often meant people sat in the ED for longer than they should. She said this was when you started to see people being assessed and treated in corridors or ambulance bays.
She said it was hard to see the system under so much pressure, and it increased the risk for staff who were feeling tired, distressed and burnt out.
Despite the serious concerns, Health Minister Andrew Little said on Tuesday EDs were ‘‘totally safe’’.
But figures obtained by National Party MP and health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti showed 594 people waited 24 hours in an emergency department in August, up from 160 last August – a number getting progressively worse each month.