“When we have this kind of demand on our services it’s very tough on our staff who are working under enormous pressure and at the same time our patients with more minor illnesses and injuries have to wait longer than they should to be seen,” Barlow said. Whyman said clinical teams were working to improve the flow through the hospital to relieve the pressure on ED. Healthcare colleagues in urgent care facilities across the community had also experienced a surge in demand over the past weekend and yesterday, he said. A
Stuff analysis of the data monitoring ED performance shows a sharp decline since January 2018 when the Government axed public reporting of District Health Boards (DHB) “shorter stay in EDs” target.