Hospital buckled under flood of patients

Crisis struck North Shore Hospital in 2007. A recent Health and Disability Commissioner’s report claims rushed nurses simply didn’t have time to care. Reporter Hayden Donnell investigates what caused the problems and who was at fault.

A perfect storm was hitting North Shore Hospital in the winter of 2007.

Its controlling health board was strapped for cash after years of underfunding, nurses were in short supply and a virulent strain of flu was going around.

Patients poured into the hospital in high numbers, only to find there were not enough beds or nurses. The situation created disturbing failings as stressed staff tried to tend to growing crowds of acutely unwell people.

Acting Waitemata District Health Board chairman Max Abbott was one of those in charge of the hospital during the crisis.

He compares the situation to a 50 or 100-year flood.

A national nurse shortage caused by years of minimal investment into training health professionals was hitting hard, he says.

The then Labour government had made it clear there was no funding for significant extensions to the hospital.

His board was caught between creating hospital beds and letting other services go without funding.

"We didn’t realise there would be the extent of overload that there was. Once we did we immediately requested plans from management. We moved quite quickly," he says.

"With the wisdom of hindsight we could have provided extra beds earlier but if we did that other things would not have been done."

Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson released a critical report on the hospital on May 1. It reveals failings in the care administered to five elderly patients, four of whom died, in the winter of 2007.

One 82-year-old patient faced a 36-hour wait in the emergency department.

A pneumonia-stricken 78-year-old was left to wash herself in a toilet with wet paper towels after suffering night sweats.

Rushed nurses failed to deliver timely care to several of the patients and concerned families were not communicated with.

Blame for the conditions that caused the failings was pinned on the health board and its senior managers.

Northcote MP Jonathan Coleman says the board did not do all it could to stop the hospital disaster.

It became "fixated" on arguing over funding instead of paying attention to problems at the hospital, he says.

"The board didn’t pay enough attention to issues raised by staff. Individual staff were really dedicated but were let down by the system in which they were working."

That is backed by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.

Nurses were ignored by the board and left to "struggle against the odds", its statement says.

They need to be empowered in order to stop situations like the one at North Shore Hospital in 2007 happening again, it says.

"Nurses are frequently in situations where the weight of demands for their attention is greater than the support available to them. What we must do is protect patient care by ensuring nurses are not left to struggle against the odds, as these nurses at North Shore Hospital were."

The government has recently approved a $48 million Lakeview extension to the hospital.

That will add a revamped and streamlined emergency department, a 50-bed assessment and diagnostic unit and a 30-bed ward. It is set to open in 2011 – two more winters away.

- © Fairfax NZ News