Waiting times 'worst on record'

Emergency patients in the central region wait the longest for treatment, figures show.

The Health Ministry's latest hospital benchmark report comes less than a week after a damning report by the health and disability commissioner blaming understaffing and overcrowding in emergency departments for the deaths of three patients and serious injuries to two.

Health Minister Tony Ryall, who issued the benchmark ratings for the 21 district health boards yesterday, said waiting times at emergency departments nationwide were among the worst on record.

The ministry's benchmarking report for July to September showed response times for the second-most urgent category of patients dropped to their worst levels in four years.

Just 67.5 per cent of category 2 patients including those suffering serious head injury, moderately severe trauma and suspected heart attacks were treated within the recommended 10 minutes.

Fewer than half of patients categorised as triage 3 those with fractures, breathlessness, bleeding or other conditions requiring urgent treatment but not considered life-threatening were seen within the recommended time of 30 minutes.

This result was "the worst performance bar one since they started recording data in 2001", Mr Ryall said.

Capital and Coast District Health Board had the worst rate for category 3 patients: three out of four waited longer than half an hour, and less than 60 per cent of triage 2 patients received treatment within 10 minutes.

Hutt Hospital had the worst triage 3 rates among medium-sized hospitals, with more than 66 per cent waiting too long.

Hawke's Bay and MidCentral also fell short on triage 3 times, with 45 per cent and 36 per cent of patients respectively waiting longer than 30 minutes for treatment.

Both Wairarapa and Wanganui hospitals met all three emergency triage benchmarks.

Mr Ryall said emergency department waiting times were "a key measure of performance" for hospitals.

"Thanks to our dedicated front-line staff, patients experiencing immediately life-threatening conditions get seen at once, but too many others who are also seriously injured or ill have to wait, and wait in overcrowded and struggling emergency departments. And for these patients it's getting worse."

He said he had just received a report from a task force on speeding up emergency department waiting times. "We can't fix this overnight, but the new Government and the public health service are determined to improve this."

Last week, Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson criticised Hutt Valley, Whanganui, Nelson Marlborough, Canterbury and Bay of Plenty district health boards over five cases in which patients either died or were left seriously injured in 2006 and 2007.

This month, Wellington Hospital began progressively instituting a six-hour maximum wait in emergency, with patients waiting for beds being transferred to "transit lounges" in the wards.

- © Fairfax NZ News