Northland doctor warns ED wait times still unsafe despite targets met
A Northland emergency doctor says figures showing Whangārei Hospital was among the best nationwide for seeing patients within six hours is not cause for celebration.
Data reported by the NZ Herald show New Zealand’s hospitals were falling short of meeting the Government’s target of admitting, discharging or transferring 95% of patients within six hours in August.
Between 69.2% and 90.5% of patients from August 8 to 23 were seen within the targeted time frame at Whangārei Hospital. The national average was between 62.9% and 69.9%.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora and Acting Minister of Health Matt Doocey cautioned the data leaked to Labour was unvalidated operational data and shouldn’t be considered “fact”.
Doocey and Health NZ say validated data from quarter three of 2024/25 (January-March) – showing 74.2% of patients were admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours of entering an emergency department (ED) – proves there is improvement.
They also acknowledged this winter has seen an “unprecedented” volume of patients presenting.
While Northland regularly met or surpassed that milestone in August, there was another side to the numbers, Northland emergency doctor Dr Gary Payinda explained.
“That doesn’t mean that our patients are doing well. It merely means that we’re doing less badly than some others.”
Payinda argued the data showed a reasonable percentage of patients who were not seen in a safe or timely fashion.
“If you are a patient having a heart attack in the waiting room but you don’t know it, you don’t know what your chest or upper abdominal pain is caused by and you don’t get the assessment you need by a doctor and get the treatments you need, you may still meet the six hour target but did we do the right thing for you? Obviously not.”
A report released in August, commissioned by Kia Manawanui Trust – The Heart of Aotearoa, and prepared by the University of Otago, found that half of New Zealand’s heart attack patients weren’t being treated within accepted timeframes.
It also showed New Zealand had just a third of the cardiologists it should have.
Payinda said any delay in seeing a doctor could result in negative outcomes, including death.
“If I can’t see you for four hours while you are critically ill out in the waiting room, then what does it matter if I decide you need to be admitted to the intensive care unit or the cardiac catheterisation lab at hour six?”
Payinda said the leaked data was on the back of an unsustainable amount of work for staff trying hard to see patients within a timely manner.
“The requests for us to do extra duties is incessant.”
Doocey said having a clear target for ED performance was important for a refocus on delivery. While hospitals meeting the shorter stays in ED quarterly milestone was “real progress”, performance was still not where it needed to be.
He said the Government was investing in primary care and strengthening frontline services with upgraded infrastructure and increased staffing.
Health NZ Northland acting group director of operations Andrew Howes said the entity was committed to achieving its 95% target by 2030.
The focus has been on improving patient flow through the hospital.
He said that included managing staff to cover sick leave and short-notice leave, which was monitored on a shift-by-shift basis.
“Like many hospitals at this time of year, Whangārei has been exceptionally busy, managing increased demand caused by seasonal illnesses.
“While we plan for and anticipate these surges, this winter’s volume of presentations has been unprecedented.”
Howes said Health NZ was working closely with community providers to ensure patients could be cared for after discharge and prevent unnecessary ED visits.
It was also continuing to look at “long-standing” workforce challenges to prioritise Northland’s needs.
In 2018, the Labour-led Government dropped health targets because they were said to be creating “perverse outcomes” for patients.
The Government reinstated health targets inJuly last year aspart of a broader strategy to improve health system performance and patient outcomes.
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.