KEY POINTS:
A record influx of patients has left Waikato Hospital staff struggling to cope with a critical shortage of beds.
At 2pm yesterday occupancy was 109 per cent with 16 patients waiting for two available beds.
Meanwhile, about 70 people, some having endured long waits, were in the emergency department, which had "nowhere to put them".
But staff there say they have no choice but to cope.
A record 4779 patients were admitted to the hospital in August, surpassing its previous highest intake, in March this year, by more than 200.
The rush was putting medical staff, down on numbers through bereavements and illnesses, under pressure, said Waikato District Health Board spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill.
Waikato Hospital group manager Hayley McConnell said weekend acute patients and a full hospital from last week were the main contributors.
She said strategies to reduce occupancy, including cancellation of some elective surgery and additional beds being opened, were not enough to provide the 40 more beds required overnight.
"It reduces our ability to receive inter-hospital transfers, referrals and other direct admissions."
Ms McConnell said clinical teams needed to accelerate transfers back to patients' home hospitals to allow the hospital to manage acute admissions.
"We've opened more beds butunrelenting acute numbers andan overall increase in lengthof stay are contributing factors."
Ms Gill said that if the hospital's status did reach "critical" point, staff would "just have to cope".
"We would call on the goodwill of our staff to work an extra two hours or so."
She said the hospital was keen to entice ex-nurses back and would this week launch a campaign to address its shortage of nurses.
"Last year we managed to get about 30 back."
A spokeswoman for Middlemore Hospital, Lauren Young, said last night that the South Auckland hospital's emergency department had "gone through hell this weekend ... There has been a lot of violence and major injuries".
WAIKATO HOSPITAL
2008 monthly totals
January - 4559
February - 4239
March - 4585
April - 4207
May - 4340
June - 4334
July - 4420
August - 4779
