DHB fails to supply data

Tony Ryall

There are "anomalies" and inaccurate records of how long people are having to wait in the emergency department at Wairarapa Hospital.

Annette King, Labour's health spokeswoman, obtained triage waiting times from every district health board in New Zealand under the Official Information Act (OIA).

However, Wairarapa DHB did not release the waiting times to Ms King as they were not accurate and needed to be tidied up, said acting hospital manager Lindsay Wilde.

"We do record triage times, but there are anomalies in the way the data is collected and it does not reflect the current ED practice."

A slightly different story was told to Ms King, who said she was told the DHB did not collect it and did not report it.

The DHB was the only one in the country not to release collected data to Ms King's request.

Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHB chief executive Graham Dyer had told Ms King in a letter that there was no triage report available.

She said she was disappointed that they did not give her a clear reason as to why they were withholding the information.

"It's not good under the terms of the OIA."

Ms King said dud statistics were hardly reassuring for the country's emergency departments or for patients.

But she said she did understand that, if the data was unreliable, it was better not to release it to the public until it had been fixed.

EDs use the Australasian Triage System to determine who needs to be seen first and how urgently, and there are target times for different types of health issues.

"Clearly, those with a life threatening illness or injury are seen immediately," said Ms Wilde.

What is not so clear is whether the triage target times are being met by the Wairarapa ED.

As there is no reported data, it is not clear whether people classed as triage two - patients suffering from serious head injuries, moderately severe trauma or suspected heart attacks - are seen within the 10-minute target.

Ms Wilde said they were trying to tidy up the data and the inaccuracies were partly to do with their IT system.

She said the key data to be looked at was the national six-hour wait target.

"We continuously monitor and report on our performance in a wide variety of areas, including the national ED Waiting Times target."

The national target is that 95 per cent of patients will be admitted, discharged or transferred from ED within six hours.

Wairarapa was consistently at or near the top of the chart with 97 per cent, Ms Wilde said.

Health Minister Tony Ryall congratulated Hutt Valley DHB for its "outstanding progress" but it had one of the worst rates in New Zealand, with only 38 per cent of people in triage two being seen within the target time.

Only 33 per cent of triage three patients - who have urgent conditions such as fractures, bleeding or breathlessness were seen within the 30-minute timeframe.

Mr Ryall has said he has been told by ED doctors and nurses that triage times were not the best measure of ED performance.

Ms Wilde said there were many measures of quality of service in ED - triage times were just one possible indicator.