Overloaded Christchurch Hospital treating patients in ED corridors due to surge in numbers

Christchurch Hospital's emergency department is having to treat up to a dozen patients at a time in corridors, due to an unprecedented number of admissions. Photo / File

Christchurch Hospital's emergency department is treating up to a dozen patients at a time in corridors, because of an unprecedented number of admissions.

Clinical director Dr David Richards says the department normally has about 250 admissions a day at this time of year, but in the past three weeks it's been more like 300.

He says the hospital has been at capacity, so on average they're having to treat 10 or 12 patients in the ED hallways, which he says is "unacceptable".

"It's unpleasant for the patients and family members, it means staff have to navigate the trolleys, and it provides very little privacy," he said.

"Obviously we try to move patients into a cubicle to examine and treat them but it's a very unsatisfactory state of affairs."

Richards says a lot of people have had the flu or viruses, but others have had to wait days to see a GP and ended up needing emergency care.

"GPs are working very hard and seeing record numbers of people in after-hours clinics, but they're struggling to cope with increased demand," he said.

Richards says the record numbers of patients are taking their toll and they're seeing increased sickness in staff.

He says the numbers of patients have been increasing but the hospital is not being given an increasing number of staff to match.

Ministry of Health spokesman Michael Hundleby says every year the Government bulk funds DHBs, DHBs then decide how they spend their funding.

"Over the past eight years the Government has injected an additional $331 million into Canterbury DHB through the Population Based Funding Formula and other Vote Health funding. In 2016/17 total funding was $1.4 billion. Budget 2017 included a further $73 million in funding."