Covid-19 Omicron outbreak: Wellington woman discharged from hospital three hours post-birth, claims father

The woman developed an infection and self-transferred to hospital, said her father. Photo / 123rf

A Wellington woman developed a serious infection and had to self-transfer to hospital after being discharged just three hours after giving birth, her father claims.

Her condition deteriorated over several days, and was dismissed by calls to the midwife and gynaecologist it as "after-birth pain," he claims.

Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) says women who have given birth are always discharged when it is "clinically safe" to do so, while Wellington Free Ambulance says the woman's case was deemed "non-life-threatening" when an ambulance was called.

The Wellington man, who has asked not to be named to protect his daughter's privacy, said she gave birth at Wellington Hospital last Tuesday morning, and claims she was discharged just three hours later.

"What they said was, 'you are medically assessed to be able to go home' … she came home, but what we've learnt since is she had a real bad infection," he said.

"She was slowly getting worse and we even tried to ring the midwives at some point... that was sort of just dismissed as after-birth pain, endometriosis pain.

"Her mother even got hold of a gynaecologist specialist doctor and they just said the same sort of thing, no one was too concerned about her condition deteriorating.

"They didn't seem to pick the urgency of it."

Eventually an ambulance was called at about 11pm on Thursday night, after the woman had developed a high temperature and was "screaming in agony", he claims.

"The response from the call-taker was 'a nurse or doctor will ring you back within 10 – 30 minutes."

After waiting an hour, the family arranged for a friend to transport them to Wellington hospital in a private vehicle.

"Once they got her into the emergency department in the hospital, they were wonderful," he said.

"They got drips and painkillers and antibiotics into her, and found a bottle to feed the baby."

Wellington Free Ambulance had assessed the situation as 'non-life-threatening'. Photo / File

A Wellington Free Ambulance spokeswoman confirmed they had received the call, and assessed the situation as triage area grey, or "non-life threatening".

When a nurse checked in with the patient an hour after the initial call, they were informed she was already on her way to hospital and the ambulance was cancelled.

Emergency ambulance services across the country recorded a record number of 111 calls over the weekend.

At its peak on Sunday, St John and Wellington Free Ambulance recorded 2322 calls nationwide into its centres in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch - about 100 more calls a day than the previous record.

In a statement made yesterday, St John said there had been reports of record wait times of up to seven-and-a-half minutes for a 111 call to be answered.

However, the Wellington Free Ambulance spokeswoman said it was unlikely this had impacted how the Wellington woman's particular call was handled.

As the patient had the option to self-transfer to hospital, the assessment of her situation would not have been any different, she said.

St John's Ambulance have just had their busiest weekend on record. Photo / Ben Fraser

The woman was discharged from hospital on Sunday and is slowly recovering, though is still on oral painkillers and antibiotics, said her father.

He claims her infection would not have worsened so significantly if she had been monitored for longer in hospital.

"I think if she'd been kept in hospital longer, hospitals monitor you," he said.

"And perhaps the infection wouldn't have developed so much by early Friday when we got her to hospital.

"It looks like ambulances and the hospital really try to get rid of people as fast as they can at the moment."

Hutt Valley DHB and Capital & Coast DHB chief executive Fionnagh Dougan could not comment on this specific case, but said there was no time frame for how long a woman should be monitored after giving birth.

The woman was discharged three hours after giving birth, says her father. Photo / Mark Mitchell

"Our services only discharge patients when it is clinically safe and appropriate to do so," she said.

"When this time comes, people can expect to be discharged efficiently – rather than experiencing an unnecessarily long wait in hospital when they could, and would rather, be at home.

"All decisions relating to patient care are made in the interests of patient and staff safety, and in accordance with national guidance."

In response to questions about how Covid-19 had impacted maternity services, Doughan said the DHB had plans in place to "ensure the continued provision of treatment and support for both Covid and non-Covid patients".

"As the Covid-19 situation is continually changing and evolving, there may come a point in the future when we may need to re-look at our policies," she said.

"This would be in response to peaking Covid cases and, if this occurs, we will talk to women and midwives should the need arise."

Changes to the visitor restrictions at Wellington Hospital last week mean pregnant women can only have one support person while in labour, and one nominated visitor thereafter.