Patients forced to wait

Patients were forced to wait up to several hours at Tauranga Hospital's Emergency Department at the weekend as it struggled to cope with an influx of people seeking treatment.
A flow of about 30 people seeking non-urgent treatment consistently filled the waiting room all day Saturday and part of Sunday as the department tried to deal with higher-than-usual numbers.
Those seeking urgent medical attention were not delayed. All patients are checked when they first arrive at the department to determine whether their need is urgent or non-urgent.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board communications manager Carol Wollaston said people were waiting up to "several hours" to be seen by a doctor for minor injuries and illnesses over the two days. Yesterday the situation had calmed down and delays were kept to a minimum.
She could not pinpoint the reason behind the weekend influx, saying: "It's probably a mixture of factors. [It] could be the onset of winter, colder weather, because it's Queen's Birthday weekend with a lot of visitors from the city, those kind of things."
Ms Wollaston said it wasn't the first time patients had had to wait for non-urgent emergency care. "It's one of those things where it seems to come in blips. It doesn't happen regularly, but every so often you have a blip where a great number of people are coming up sick or injured," she said.
Although Ms Wollaston could not confirm the transfer of patients to Whakatane Hospital, she said: "That would be a normal thing for us to do. It would be a practical and normal decision to transfer patients if there was capacity at Whakatane [Hospital]."
Bayfair Doctors manager Sharron Harris said people were queuing before the centre opened at 8am on both days and the waiting area was full for much of the time.
She said some people had to wait 1-2 hours to see a GP. "We were extremely busy."
Deputy mayor and district health board member David Stewart said the department was for emergencies only and people seeking non-urgent care for things like the flu should see a GP. "We can only cater for so many."
However, he said the cost of seeing a private after-hours doctor could be why people chose to use the free emergency service at hospital _ even if it meant waiting for several hours.
Evening medical care centre Bayfair Doctors charges up to $69 ($54 with a Community Services Card) to see a GP and Accident and Healthcare costs up to $62 ($47) a visit.
"I'm sure it's [the cost] is something people would weigh up in their minds," Mr Stewart said. "There's no reason in New Zealand why people cannot afford to go to the doctor one way or another."
National MP for Bay of Plenty and Opposition health spokesman Tony Ryall raised concerns about the waiting period over the weekend. "It is an increasing feature across the country," he said. "People are waiting longer and longer."