Whangārei Hospital continues to accept patients and new admissions, Health NZ Te Whatu Ora said Friday evening, hitting back at reports the hospital had been unable to accept more patients after its emergency department (ED) hit ‘Code Black’ yesterday, reaching more than 150 percent capacity.
“[A]ny claims otherwise are false and inaccurate,” said Alex Pimm, Te Whatu Ora group director of operations for Te Tai Tokerau.
Pimm said Te Whatu Ora wants to assure the public that anyone who presents to ED and requires hospital-level care will receive it.
“To be clear, we never turn people away from EDs in any hospital across New Zealand when they need our care.”
He said care is required interpreting hospital internal mechanisms to measure occupancy without appropriate expertise.
This follows media reports on Whangārei Hospital reaching Code Black on Friday which inferred this meant the ED was unable to accept more patients.
“We would caution interpretation of these measures without the appropriate clinical and operational context.”
Pimm said the system was about managing patient flow throughout the ED and into the hospital.
While the hospital’s ED was “very busy” on Friday, he said it was not “over capacity”.
“EDs are always busy environments, particularly in winter, and Whangārei Hospital is no different.”
Pimm said occupancy levels across the country’s hospitals constantly fluctuate – from hour to hour, and even minute to minute – as patients are admitted and discharged.
The Emergency Department at A Glance (EDAAG) system has four escalations, green-amber-red-black. These factor in patient numbers, acuity, patient waiting time, and resus bed capacity.
“The ED may arbitrarily trigger a particular colour status multiple times in one day as demand and pressures change.”
Pimm said the colour coding systems are “blunt tools” used in ED.
“[T]he status can change back and forth in minutes over the course of a 24-hour period. It is a real time measure.”
‘I have never seen this before’
An RNZ report on Friday said Whangārei Hospital staff had told them there had been more than 80 arrivals since midnight Thursday, including 21 within one hour.
“I have never seen this before,” one staff member said.
On Friday afternoon, the ED was at 156 percent capacity. Whangārei’s ED - which has space to treat 32 patients - had 50 patients, the report said.
Staff told RNZ they were being asked to pick up workload from smaller rural hospitals, which were struggling with their own staff shortages.
Te Whatu Ora said the transfer of patients from Bay of Islands to Whangārei “had nothing to do with staffing”.
