Non-Covid patient medevacced from Cook Islands to NZ

The Cook Islands government has confirmed this week a 47 year old woman was medevacced from Rarotonga to New Zealand.

The government says the patient was moved to critical care services in Auckland because she was deemed too ill to wait for the regular flight at the end of the week.

The woman had complications arising from diabetes and septic shock.

The illness was not associated with Covid-19 but as a precaution she was tested for the coronavirus and returned a negative result.

The air ambulance flight was staffed by four intensive care staff.

The patient was in a stable condition but had required urgent resuscitation earlier in the week.

Meanwhile health authorities are urging Cook Islanders not to delay seeking medical attention as this is leading to an increase in complications and severity of illnesses.

"This could be avoided if people took better care of their health or presented earlier to their nurses in their community health clinics.

"We are seeing a number of patients presenting with cellulitis or other skin infections, which are largely preventable with good care at home," said Secretary of Health Dr Josephine Aumea Herman.