Hawke's Bay Hospital doctor claims overcrowding close to 'worst we have ever seen'

An experienced doctor at Hawke's Bay Hospital says its emergency department is moving from crisis to crisis, despite a drop in Covid numbers.

The doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, claims that at one point on Monday there were 26 people waiting in ED for a bed to become available in wards - despite all those patients being admitted to the hospital.

The doctor described it as being close to the "worst we have ever seen" and said it had come in spite of the fact there was only one Covid patient in hospital in Hawke's Bay.

The hospital announced on Monday it was temporarily postponing some elective surgeries to free up more beds after "high admission rates" and "staffing challenges" over the weekend.

Te Whatu Ora Te Matau a Māui Hawke's Bay (formerly Hawke's Bay DHB) chief medical and dental officer Dr Robin Whyman said they were doing their best to deal with long wait times for care.

"Te Whatu Ora Hawke's Bay is not alone in experiencing these pressures with other hospitals around the region facing periods where there are high patient wait times in emergency departments and delays between decisions to admit a person into the hospital and a bed being available.

"Hawke's Bay has experienced that situation over the past 24 hours and we are working hard to ensure we can admit people and maintain patient safety.

"Te Whatu Ora Hawke's Bay makes every effort to support its staff and understands the pressures they face daily and is exploring all options available to it to ensure suitable staffing levels are maintained."

Whyman said temporarily postponing elective surgery was not an easy decision but would free up space in the hospital.

"This past weekend, particularly Sunday, has seen a range of patients presenting with frailty and complex needs that have required hospital-level care."

Whyman said if it was not an emergency, people were encouraged to see their GP or call Healthline on 0800-611-116 for health advice. He said he understood primary care colleagues were also experiencing heavy demand and that walk-in centres were also busy at the weekend and into the start of this week.

The experienced doctor, who spoke to Hawke's Bay Today, claimed some patients had been spending more than 24 hours in the emergency department waiting for beds.

Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ works towards a target of having 95 per cent of patients spending no more than six hours in the ED.

The doctor said it was becoming "soul destroying" for staff who were turning up each day knowing they couldn't offer the level of care that should be offered to patients.

"We have really been operating with a hospital that has been over 100 per cent capacity for a number of months," the doctor said.

"That has been going on every night.

"It used to be infrequently ... but it has been every night for the past three or four months.

"And this weekend just gone has been some of the worst overcrowding I think we have ever seen."

The doctor said when ward beds were unavailable the ED department, which on a busy day gets more than 150 presentations a day, becomes overcrowded.

"It is a huge issue with patient safety. The waiting room blows out and becomes very, very full.

"It is difficult in those circumstances to keep track of patients and where they are.

"If they deteriorate it may be some delay before that is detected just because it is a very overcrowded department, and becomes a very inefficient department."

The doctor said he felt it was a system issue where Hawke's Bay no longer has enough capacity "to treat all the patients that need treatment".

Te Whatu Ora Hawke's Bay chief medical and dental officer Dr Robin Whyman outside the ED. Photo / NZME

"For factors beyond our control we are not providing the standard of care that we want to provide and it is actually soul destroying - turning up every day at work wanting to do the best you can and you are confronted with not enough room and not enough spaces and no flow of patients through to the hospital."

Whyman said deferring planned care was never an easy decision, but it was required at the moment to "create immediate capacity for urgent care".

He said they apologised in advance to those affected.

"Anyone whose surgery has to be deferred will be contacted by phone.

"If you haven't been contacted by us, please assume your surgery is going ahead."

It is understood cancerous elective surgeries have not been cancelled.

Earlier this year, the Government announced a huge boost in funding for the health sector as part of Budget 2022.

However, no major infrastructure projects were announced for Hawke's Bay Hospital.