Hospital failed dead man, report finds

Tauranga Hospital failed to provide an acceptable level of care to a man who died after waiting four hours to see a doctor, says an official report.

The damning report by Health Commissioner Ron Paterson found that the department was overcrowded and posed a risk to patients.

In a rare move, Mr Paterson also requested a Ministry of Health audit of hospital triage procedures.

The report was prompted by the 2001 death of a Tauranga man with deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

On June 6, 2001, the unnamed 64-year-old drove himself to hospital after undergoing a scan that revealed a life-threatening DVT in his leg. His doctor had phoned the department to advise staff of his condition and had given the man a letter to take with him.

After arriving at 5.20pm, the man was assessed as requiring treatment within 30 minutes. Four hours later, he had still not seen an emergency department doctor.

A little after 9pm, he became visibly unwell and at 9.25pm had the first of two heart attacks. Less than half an hour later, he died from pulmonary embolism.

The report, including input from experts described stressed staff caught up in a whirl of acute admissions.

"Emergency department staff realised what was happening to Mr A [the dead man] and other patients but were somewhat hamstrung in their abilities to do anything about it due to the multiple demands placed upon them."

BOP District Health Board chief executive Ron Dunham admitted the unit was stretched.

"This health district is bursting at the seams. We need a new emergency department within five to six years ... but we will have to rely on more short-term solutions until the whole hospital is sorted out."

Mr Dunham said much had been done over the past two years to reduce the potential for another such incident.

The department now had extra beds and more staff.

A planned $65 million campus redevelopment, which is still awaiting Government funding approval, included an expanded emergency department, but the new department was at least six years away.

Emergency department clinical director Derek Sage said nursing rosters had been adjusted to ensure "maximum staffing at predicted peak periods". The department had also increased its senior specialist emergency medicine cover.

However, there were still too many people arriving at the emergency department to be treated for routine coughs, colds and sniffles.

Dr Sage hoped the advent of primary health organisation funding would relieve some pressure. After-hours medical care was at present "horrendously expensive ... an indictment on having to pay for primary healthcare".