Hospital staff promise to cut delays

Tired and burned out Waikato Hospital Emergency department staff say they can improve patient waiting times despite a rising tide of cases.

Statistics reported this week by the Health Ministry show Waikato Hospital was one of the worst offenders when it came to processing patients within a six-hour timeframe. It achieved the goal in just 65 per cent of cases. The target is 95 per cent.

At a Health Waikato advisory committee meeting this week, managers and staff of the hospital's ED outlined ways to improve waiting times and noted their adoption was already making a difference.

Committee member Pippa Mahood asked staff how they felt when the statistics were made public and got an emotional response from clinical nurse specialist Lynette Baines.

"We are fatigued and burned out," she said. "It's hard to turn out, day in and day out, to do our job but it has taken 15 years for us to finally have our chance in the limelight and if something good can come from this then it is worth it."

That "something good" will arrive in the form of a new emergency department, expected to open early in 2011. The prospect is helping to sustain staff working in cramped conditions. Nurse educator Mary-Anne Spence said the ED team "routinely delivered care in corridors".

"Sometimes there are curtains and sometimes there aren't, which isn't ideal when it comes to the privacy of our patients. But we are working in one of the smallest EDs in the country which is also one of the busiest," Ms Spence said.

Research presented by ED project manager Martin Chadwick showed that the volume of patients presenting to ED was ahead of population growth along with higher volumes of "sicker" patients. "ED is busy, complicated, complex and chaotic but it is also very predictable.

"For instance Monday is our busiest day, and in understanding that we can hopefully provide better services," Mr Chadwick said.

ED operations manager Jenni Yeates said the department could and would reach the ministry's 95 per cent target by June next year.

- © Fairfax NZ News