Major A & E departments under huge pressure

new-zealand-national-party

Mon Jun 25 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Major A & E departments under huge pressure

Monday, 25 June 2007, 8:28 am
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

“More and more patients languish on trolleys in hospital corridors, because New Zealand's major hospital emergency departments are still failing to see emergency patients soon enough,” says National Party Health spokesman Tony Ryall.

And National is warning that emergency patients will wait even longer if GPs stop providing after-hours care.

The latest information for the three months ending March 2007, shows that no major DHB in New Zealand is meeting all three of the Government's waiting time benchmarks for treating patients at emergency departments. These benchmarks are recommended by the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine.

“Just four small DHBs met all three benchmarks for emergency treatment times. They were Tairawhiti, Lakes, Wairarapa and South Canterbury – all DHBs located in smaller cities and towns.

“Many hospitals struggle to even see patients with immediate or imminent threat to ‘life or limb’ (*1). How bad is that? Despite the huge amount of extra money being poured into the health system, it obviously isn't getting to where it’s needed.

“How long you wait in a hospital emergency department has a direct bearing on how well any treatment will work (*2). Sadly, everyone knows someone who has waited hours and hours to be seen at an ED. Yet the Government waits for more reports and keeps giving excuses.”

Mr Ryall says the data he is releasing today does not include less serious patients whose waiting time in emergency departments is not recorded (*3).

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"Health Minister Pete Hodgson could fix delays in emergency care by improving after-hours GP care and using innovative approaches like putting GP clinics in some emergency departments.

“The Minister should not be allowed to walk away from this one. How would he like to be forced to lie on a hospital stretcher in a corridor for a couple of days?

“With GPs threatening to withdraw from after-hours care in some parts of the country, this would put even greater pressure on A&E departments.

“Too much energy, money and time is being spent on Labour covering its tracks, and not enough is finding its way to the frontline,” says Mr Ryall.

Footnotes:
*1 - Triage 2
*2 - Ministry of Health, Health and Independence Report 2006.
*3 - Triage 1: Immediate: these patients tend to have an immediate threat to life and limb, such as immediate risk to airway breathing or circulation or are deeply unconscious.

Triage 2: 10 minutes: These patients tend to have potential or imminent threat to life or limb. For example serious head injury, moderately severe trauma, suspected heart attack.

Traige 3: 30 minutes: these patients tend to have conditions which need urgent management or are associated with significant systems. For example fractures, breathlessness, bleeding.

ENDS

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