Bay's sick and injured left waiting

By ANNA BOWDEN in Tauranga
Desperately sick or injured people have to wait for hospital treatment more often in Whakatane and Tauranga than anywhere else in the country.

That's the key finding of a national examination of hospital accident and emergency waiting times.

The figures, from a quarterly hospital benchmark report, show that patients needing the most urgent treatment wait more often at Whakatane and Tauranga hospitals than they would in the country's 21 other district health board areas.

These "triage one" patients are people who are considered to need immediate attention, such as resuscitation.

But the figures, to March 31, show that just 73.8 per cent of these patients were seen immediately - the lowest in New Zealand.

Half of the 42 triage one patients throughout the country who were not treated immediately were in the Bay of Plenty.

And only half of triage two and three patients, who have lesser problems, are seen within the required time of 10 minutes and 30 minutes respectively - ranking Bay of Plenty in the bottom quarter in the country.

These can include people with serious illnesses and broken bones.

Tauranga Hospital managers admit there are problems but say the figures could be skewed by the way doctors in different regions report the way they treat their patients.

The hospital board's chief executive officer, Ron Dunham, said the March figures matched internal statistics and he acknowledged there was a continuing problem with triage patients waiting too long.

But the figures could be misleading because the reporting process was often held up during emergencies, giving an inaccurate time of treatment and skewing the figures.

He said doctors had to tend to triage one patients immediately - meaning they often would not input the assessment details into the computer until much later.

The figures for the benchmark report were taken from the computer system.

"We have indicated there is a problem with the way we capture data for the reporting process. We are still concerned that we need to perform better in triage," Mr Dunham said.

"We can reassure [people] that it is not the treatment that is a problem, it is more the assessment time," he said.

Mr Dunham said moves were being made to improve the reporting process and meet triage target times. The figures had improved in April but could not be supplied in time for this story.

Tauranga resident Diana Luke-Stewart had a two-hour wait at Tauranga Hospital when she dislocated her shoulder two weeks ago. While she was waiting, another patient was lying on the floor with a pillow under his head, also waiting to be seen.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking. I don't like the way they say they'll be with you shortly and then you wait an hour."

The Welcome Bay woman arrived at 9pm and did not get home until 1.30am.

National MP Judith Collins, who supplied the figures, said the battle with the late flu epidemic had been used as an excuse for the increasing number of patients and sick staff at hospitals.

But she said the Government had failed to act on "the very specific early-warning signs this year".

ACT New Zealand health spokeswoman Heather Roy said the introduction of the primary health system had resulted in the closure of some after-hours services.

In July the cost of a late-night doctor's callout almost quadrupled in the Western Bay of Plenty, with fees of up to $400 at Baycare Medical Services.

The change means the only other after-hour options are to call an ambulance or use the emergency department at Tauranga Hospital - adding to the strain on those services.

Baycare said it was struggling to maintain its after-hours service because of increasing costs.

It lifted the home visit charge before 11pm to $200 and between 11pm and 8am to $400.

Health Minister Annette King was unavailable for comment, but a spokeswoman said Ms King had been reassured by Mr Dunham that the reporting of treatments was part of the problem facing Bay of Plenty triage one patients.

Ms King's main concern was reducing waiting times for triage three patients.

More specialist doctors are being trained for accident and emergency centres.

Ministry of Health chief clinical adviser Sandy Dawson said the triage figures were part of a "scorecard" of hospital quality indicators.

Hospitals throughout the country had faced "substantial challenges in maintaining triage guidelines.