KEY POINTS:
Waikato Hospital is still full today and staff are dealing with the added burden of one of their own dying in a car accident.
The hospital, which covers an eighth of the country and services a population of 800,000, was declared full yesterday after a spate of serious road accidents came on top of usual seasonal flu cases.
Hayley McConnell, manager nursing and clinical services, said the hospital was full again today.
"We are not likely to empty significantly unless we deploy some significant discharge, or rapid discharge, planning through to the weekend. Monday looks like we will be full again," she said.
Waikato District Health Board spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said the hospital admitted patients to beds usually kept for day patients to cope with demand.
"We had 155 people through the emergency department yesterday," she said.
Staff are also grieving for a nursing colleagues who along with her husband was killed instantly in an accident north of Huntly on Tuesday.
Police today named the nurse as Pacita San Juan, 51, and her husband as Vergel De Dios.
Ms Juan was well known at the hospital and had been on her way to work when the accident happened.
Dr Grant Howard, general manager of operations and support, has asked the public to seek medical advice from general practitioners or health centres for non-emergency cases before heading to the hospital.
"Clearly if it is an emergency they should still come to the hospital," he said.
Hospitals were always busy and some days they were so busy they became gridlocked.
However, patients were not being transferred to other hospitals.
The increase in trauma cases meant that some elective surgery was delayed.
- NZPA
