Emergency Department crisis hasn't gone away
new-zealand-national-party
Sun Sep 23 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Emergency Department crisis hasn't gone away
Sunday, 23 September 2007, 3:09 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party
Tony Ryall MP
National Party Health Spokesman
23 September 2007
Emergency Department crisis hasn't gone away
"Patients will continue to 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.
The latest information for the three months ending June 2007, shows that only four of the 21 DHBs 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.
"Only the Tairawhiti, Wairarapa, Nelson Marlborough and South Canterbury DHBs met all three benchmarks for emergency treatment times.
"Some of the major DHBs are, in fact, going backwards.
"Many hospitals struggle to even see patients with immediate or imminent threat to 'life or limb' (*1). Despite the huge amount of extra money being poured into the health system, it obviously isn't getting to where it's needed.
"Emergency Departments are barometers about how well the rest of the hospital is doing. 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 reported (*3). Subsequent to the release of this latest information, the Ministry of Health has advised that data errors may be behind a number of DHBs failing to meet the most urgent Triage 1 targets.
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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. "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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