Middlemore Hospital ED. Photo: Stephen Forbes / Stuff / LDR
Middlemore Hospital staff have taken to social media to ask patients to stay away from the emergency department unless there is a threat to life or limb.
Te Whatu Ora data released this week shows Middlemore's emergency department patient numbers jumped 10 percent this year and 40 percent were waiting longer than the six-hour target.
In a video posted on Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau's Facebook page, emergency clinician Dr Matthew Clarke urged the public to save ED for emergencies.
"Our ED is really busy right now, so help us keep our ED free for emergencies. That's basically those injuries or conditions that threaten life and limb."
A staff nurse spells it out: "A really easy way to think about it is, if you need an ambulance, or a doctor has told you to come to hospital, then it's probably an emergency".
In releasing its quarterly snapshot of the health system this week, Te Whatu Ora noted hospitals continued to be under pressure, particularly for specialist appointments, planned care and Emergency Department performance.
The interim chief clinical officer, Dr Richard Sullivan, said the pressures largely stemmed from three factors: Population growth, the ageing population and an increasing number of people with chronic and complex conditions, such as diabetes and cardiac disease.
"These factors are each important, and together, they significantly increase demand for services, stretching our service capacity.
"Our challenge is both to reduce demand on hospitals where we can, such as through investments in prevention and the good work of primary and community care, and to meet the underlying growth in demand as best we can."