KEY POINTS:
Auckland's public hospitals are so full they could struggle to deal with a major emergency.
Occupancy rates are touching 100 per cent throughout the city, although the official start of winter, with its traditional influx of patients, is still days away.
An Otago University report published this week claimed an extra 1600 New Zealanders died over the winter months, in part due to cold, damp and poorly maintained homes.
But there is scant space for those expected winter patients in any of the city's five major public hospitals, the Herald can reveal.
The 600-bed capacity of Waitemata District Health Board's North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals was at 98 per cent yesterday.
Middlemore Hospital, run by the Counties Manukau DHB, yesterday reported 94 per cent of its 500 beds were full. That number has peaked at 100 per cent over the past few days.
Auckland City and Greenlane Hospitals, which have 1000 beds between them, were 95 per cent full.
Counties Manukau's chief operating officer, Ron Dunham, told the Herald yesterday that the soaring occupancy rates were "anxiety territory" for hospitals and would restrict their ability to handle a sudden major influx of seriously ill or injured patients.
Hospitals aimed to run below 90 per cent occupancy. That left them with a necessary amount of flexibility for a major emergency "like a bus crash".
"I'm a little nervous, because surgery is up and it has remained up," Mr Dunham said.
"Normally at this time of year surgery is a bit quieter. At 100 per cent, we can't quickly respond to what's going to come in the door."
The number of accidents resulting in hospital admissions was up this year on traditional trends, he said.
"[The occupancy rates] are high. They're higher than they were last year. It's been over 100 per cent."
When occupancy reached such high levels, patients were sometimes transferred to areas not designed for their treatment needs.
"You start to get to the point, when you're past 100 [per cent], where you're utilising space that isn't appropriate.
"We need to get it down, and we need the public's help to get it down."
Emergency departments were "not the only option" for people with emergency medical concerns, Mr Dunham said. People should always try their on-call general practitioners before heading to the emergency department.
A Waitemata board spokeswoman said the present occupancy rates were dangerous territory coming in to winter, and the public needed to change their habit of seeing hospitals as their first stop.
A community-awareness campaign from the city's three district health boards, to begin on Sunday, would get that message out there, she said.
Emergency departments were often "snowed under by too many everyday ailments". They needed to be kept for serious and life-threatening illnesses and injuries, she said.
"And of course, your GP will refer you to a hospital emergency department if that's required."
