Hospital hopeful for emergency bypass

Wellington Hospital staff are hoping a new short-stay unit will ease pressure on the strained emergency department.

The hospital's medical assessment and planning unit last week began treating patients who have low-risk complaints, or who have already been diagnosed by their family doctors but need short-term hospital treatment.

Previously, most patients would have been diagnosed and treated first at the emergency department, often waiting hours to be seen.

GPs or ambulance paramedics can now call ahead and refer patients directly to the unit.

Patients who arrive at the emergency department can also be transferred to the 24-bed unit after an initial assessment.

Robyn Toomath, director of clinical support services, said minor bouts of pneumonia, epilepsy, chronic liver disease and strokes were among the conditions the unit could treat.

The unit was created in response to steadily rising numbers of patients being treated by emergency department staff, she said.

"The risk for the guys working in the emergency department is not the [patients] in the emergency department, but those people ... out there in the waiting room.

"You're not going to be able to divert all the [less serious] patients from ED, but we think this will be a very useful contribution."

Four hundred more patients turned up at the emergency department in June than the same month last year – an increase of about 10 per cent. Waiting times – which the Government has warned must improve – were also often longer than the national standard.

Lauren Addington, 27, was one of the first patients to be treated in the new unit. She suffers from type-1 diabetes and was referred by her GP in Paraparaumu after her blood sugar levels rose.

The unit was "a very good idea", she said.

"Too many people come through into ED who aren't emergencies and it clogs up the health system."