Hospital delays overnight opening

A shortage of doctors has led to the latest delay to Waitakere's plans. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Waitakere people must wait three more months for full, around-the-clock opening of their local hospital's emergency department, after health officials announced a new delay.

The Waitemata District Health Board said yesterday unexpected delays in hiring extra doctors had forced it to defer overnight opening for adult patients.

Instead of starting next Monday, the extension would occur in mid-June.

There is widespread disappointment at the new delay. It means overnight adult patients continue to face the decision whether to go to emergency departments at Auckland City or North Shore hospitals, or pay to attend their local accident and medical clinic.

"As a board, we are incredibly disappointed and frustrated," said chairman Lester Levy.

The 24/7 opening of the service has been delayed since the emergency department opened in 2005 as part of a major upgrading of Waitakere Hospital.

The commitment was to become around-the-clock last year. That was achieved in July for children - leading to a larger-than-expected increase in child patients - but was deferred to this month for adults.

Now the emergency department will continue to close to new adult patients from 10pm to 8am until mid-June.

The DHB's chief medical officer, Andrew Brant, said it would not have been safe to move to the full service next week because there were too few doctors, despite some from other health boards agreeing to work locum shifts.

The arrival of three new doctors had been delayed: one suffered a broken limb, another experienced delays obtaining a visa and the third was staying longer than first intended with another DHB. In addition, one job offer had fallen through, and an existing employee had resigned.

Dr Brant said seven doctors would join Waitemata's North Shore and Waitakere EDs, which largely share their medical staff, in April and May.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said when campaigning for the Waitakere electorate in 2008 that the local emergency department was in "crisis" from repeated partial closures during normal hours - to which the Labour-led Government of the day replied that she was being "alarmist".

Yesterday, Ms Bennett said she was "very disappointed" by the latest delay, but understood the international staffing pressures in healthcare.

"I'm assured the Waitemata DHB are giving this the commitment and priority it deserves."

The chairwoman of the Waitakere Health Link community group, Maureen Wood, said: "It's a total disappointment because we as a community have lobbied for many years to have full services.

"We did have a concern whether there would be enough staff to make this opening possible," she said, adding that "the cost of going to an after-hours A&E is out of the range of the average person in West Auckland".

THE PROMISES

* The Waitakere community was promised a 24-hour emergency department, to open in July 2005.
* In fact, it closed overnight.
* Then it was to be 24/7 "within months".
* That happened for children last July.
* Supposed to happen for adults last year, then next Monday.
* Now deferred to mid-June.
* Until then, the ED will continue to close its doors to new adult patients from 10pm to 8am.