Auckland man waited in Middlemore Hospital A&E in seven-hour ordeal

• An Auckland man says he waited at least seven hours at Middlemore Hospital among hundreds of patients in an overcrowded waiting room.
• He described seeing people sleeping on the floor and a bleeding pregnant woman waiting for hours.
• The 39-year-old praised the overworked hospital staff as “absolutely phenomenal”.

An Auckland man who waited nearly seven hours in Middlemore Hospital A&E department says he witnessed people sleeping on floors and patients walking out with medical tubes attached to their arms.

The 39-year-old, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Herald he arrived at the hospital complaining of chest pains around 4.15pm and was met with a queue from inside the department to the undercover area outside.

“I was triaged within 35 minutes, and because I had chest pains, they moved me right to the front. I got some x-rays and then I sat there for six and a half hours watching people who had been there longer than I had,” he said.

During the long wait, the man had to keep getting up and down because there were not enough chairs in the waiting room.

“If someone elderly came in, someone who was obviously very hurt, people would get up and offer them their seats. It was quite a comradery atmosphere.

“I saw one GP come in and absolutely lose it to the front desk because they referred someone to A&E who was pregnant and bleeding and were sat on a hard chair and had been there for five hours.”

Around 10pm, the man eventually approached the staff and pointed out he had to fly the next morning. He was told nine people were in the queue in front of him - an estimated three to four hours wait time according to hospital staff, he said. The 39-year-old was fortunately seen within the next hour and was able to postpone his flight.

“There were people still waiting and in pain. I would hazard a guess that there would have been a 10 to 11-hour wait in there, including pregnant women and people that didn’t have excessive bleeding but were bleeding.”

The man praised the emergency staff and doctors but was alarmed by how understaffed the ward was, and was concerned long wait times might make people leave.

Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand group director of operations for Counties Manukau Vanessa Thornton told the Herald the Middlemore Hospital ED experienced “a particularly high number of presentations over the past 48 hours”.

“Across the wider hospital, we are also operating at a high rate of occupancy, meaning that patients may wait longer than expected in ED until a bed becomes available on a ward,” she said.

“Our teams and services are working hard to relieve the resulting pressures to improve and speed up the patient journey from presenting to ED to being discharged or admitted. All ED patients are triaged on arrival with priority given to those with the most urgent clinical need.”

She warned when there are high numbers of acute patients, those who don’t have urgent issues may face extended waits.

“In those instances, we encourage non-urgent patients to seek treatment in an appropriate clinical setting such as an after-hours provider, telehealth, or with their GP.

“Providing care to the local community remains our priority and we want to assure the public that anyone who presents to ED and requires hospital-level care will receive it.”

David Williams is an Auckland-based Multimedia Journalist who joined the Herald in 2023. He covers breaking news and general topics.

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