Hospital helps ease quake workload

Whangarei Hospital has taken in renal dialysis patients transferred out of Christchurch and is gearing up to take any other transferred patients, including those injured in Tuesday's earthquake.
There are more than 100 people dead and many more injured and there is enormous pressure on health services in Canterbury. The call has gone out for other health boards to be on standby.
A number of Northland health workers have volunteered to help out in the earthquake clean-up. Northlanders will soon to be asked to donate blood for the cause.
Eleven dialysis patients and their caregivers were due to arrive at the hospital late yesterday after 43 renal patients were transferred from Christchurch to Auckland on Wednesday night.
The hospital also has the capacity to deal with any other requests for help.
The New Zealand Blood Service said blood stocks in Christchurch were sufficient for now, but would start to dwindle next month. Two special collections were to be held in Whangarei next month.
Northland District Health Board (NDHB) incident controller Kim Tito said health care services in Northland were ready to support those affected by the quake.
NDHB activated its emergency response plan immediately after notification from the National Crisis Centre and National Health Co-ordination Centre that an earthquake had struck.
"Canterbury DHB also informed us that the emergency response to this event needs to be for the long term and our response plan should be supportive in the first couple of days, with the long-term potential of deployment in the next couple of weeks or months," Mr Tito said.
"A number of Northland health care professionals have registered their interest to help out in Canterbury and their names and contact details have been forwarded to the NHCC for consideration but we do not expect them to be utilised immediately."
Intensive care capacity is available and contingency plans are in place should patients from outside Northland need to be transferred to Whangarei Hospital.
"It is likely some of these patients will transfer to Northland for ongoing treatment and we have plans in place to not only treat these patients but also provide accommodation. We are also working closely with our colleagues at the Ministry of Social Development to ensure such patients are able to access social needs such as food and clothing," Mr Tito said.
Concerned Northlanders were ringing Whangarei Hospital to offer help or support, including accommodation.
"When we do get patients affected by the Christchurch earthquake, we will have appropriate contingency plans in place to provide them with the health care they need and these plans will also include accommodation options," Mr Tito said. "There will not be any service reduction to those Northlanders accessing health care services in Northland."
The Blood Service will have special collections at Northland Cricket Association, Okara Drive, from noon to 6pm on March 17 and from 8am to 1.30pm the following day, and at Forum North from noon to 6pm on March 21-23 and from 9am to 3pm on March 24.