Hospital says ?emergency? means just that

AN emergency department just for emergencies is the message behind a campaign launched yesterday by the Wairarapa District Health Board.
Hospital manager Anne McLean said the emergency department was being used more and more by people with problems that should be seen by a GP, and the year-long campaign was to persuade the communities to "save" the department for a real emergency.
Ms McLean said about 15 per cent of all patients seen did not come by ambulance, did not have an acute condition and were not admitted to hospital.
One of the reasons appeared to be the cost of seeing a doctor, but there were a large range of subsidies available, and people could be helped under the new Primary Health Organisation schemes.
Ms McLean said the hospital really wanted to encourage people to see their family doctor early, and not wait until they were so sick they needed to go to the hospital.
Doctors do not charge for seeing under six-year-olds and there was a $24 fee or patients aged 6 to 24, and for patients 45 and over.
Those aged 25 to 44, which research showed were the ones with the fewest visits to their GP, are charged $50 or $33 if they have a community card. But from next July that group would also receive a government subsidy and will also be charged $24 for a consultation.
Last year, more than 15,300 people presented themsevles at the hospital's Emergency Department. On arrival they were assessed, or "triaged" by a nurse, and graded according to the severity of their problem.
Each triage level had a guideline about how soon a person should be seen by a doctor and somebody with an immediate life-threatening condition, who probably came by ambulance, would be a triage one and be seen straight away, Ms McLean said.
Anyone with chest pain, difficulty breathing, and very sick babies or small children, would be an emergency but someone coming in with a sore arm that they hurt last weekend would probably be triage 4 or 5, and should see their GP.
Based on hospital records, younger men and parents of young children were most likely to present with triage 4 or 5 problems, though all age groups were represented.
Ms McLean said by this time next year, it was hoped people would have a much greater awareness of the services offered by the emergency department, GPs and ambulance services.
"We certainly do not want to discourage people from using the Emergency Department when they need to," she said.