Whanganui's health authorities want better decision making from community

Anne Kauika hopes the campaign will reduce the number of people going to Whanganui's accident and medical clinic when it's not needed.

If you're sick or injured, don't seek emergency treatment unless it's serious.

That's the message health agencies are promoting through a campaign to avoid Whanganui Hospital becoming over-run this winter.

In past years the Whanganui accident and medical (WAM) clinic and the emergency department have been overburdened with patients turning up, especially at the height of winter.

Various health-focused organisations in Whanganui have grouped together to get the message to people they may not always need the emergency department.

The health promotion team leader at the Whanganui Regional Health Network, Anne Kauika, said if an injury or illness wasn't serious people should first think to rest at home.

"General practice is their next port of call, then if it's urgent or an emergency then they come up to the hospital to WAM [Whanganui Accident and Medical Clinic] or ED [Emergency Department]," she said.

"We don't want to stop people accessing urgent care if they're really worried especially around children.

"But there are a large lot of people who are unsure sometimes where they should be and it's that uncertainty that we want to mitigate a bit."

She said posters and flyers explained a traffic-light system of warnings.

On the posters green meant to stay at home, orange signalled a visit to the GP and red was for an emergency that needed urgent care at the hospital.

"It's a bit of a campaign around educating people but also wanting people to be in the right place first time.

"The traffic light seems to be an easy visual for people to understand and it's just a simple consistent message and it's really the consistency that's the big part of it."

Kauika said the traffic light idea was taken from a promotion by the Wairarapa District Health Board.

Kauika said the campaign would be out next week at schools, preschools, sports clubs, GPs, pharmacies and public places.