KEY POINTS:
Waikato Hospital is full and is asking the public to seek medical advice from general practitioners or health centres for non-emergency cases before heading its way.
Dr Grant Howard, general manager of operations and support, doesn't like the word overloaded. Very busy and full was how he described the current situation.
A combination of factors meant that between 410 and 415 beds at the hospital were occupied, and while up to a third of patients could leave in a day the hospital expected to be full until Friday.
"As we come out of winter there are lots of colds and flu and sniffles around but as a major regional hospital we also accept all the trauma cases, and we have had a huge amount of road traffic accidents in the last four weeks," he said.
Many of these patients remained in hospital for some time.
Also, there were record numbers of patients coming into the Emergency Department, increasing the number of patients being admitted.
The hospital was encouraging people to use general practitioners and after hours services in Hamilton and the Waikato region as appropriate.
"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, the situation was not bad enough to mean that patients were being transferred to other hospitals.
- NZPA
