The Emergency Department and Canterbury’s Urgent Care
facilities are currently under significant pressure says
Norma Campbell, System Wide Operations Centre Controller for
Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury,
There were 368
presentations to ED yesterday which is exceptionally busy
for midweek, and 101 people were either being treated or
waiting to be seen at 4pm today.
“I need to
emphasise that people who need care more urgently will be
seen sooner and will get the care they need,” says Norma
Campbell.
“If you don’t need emergency care,
please phone Healthline on 0800 611 116 any time of the day
or night and they can advise you on what to do and where to
go if you do need to be seen urgently. You can also call
your usual general practice or speak to your local
pharmacist for health advice.”
“There is no single
condition causing the high demand, it is a range of
illnesses affecting the community.
Although we are
asking for your help in reducing demand, if you are really
unwell we do still want to see you. I apologise to those who
are having to wait and understand that this can be
particularly distressing when you are unwell,” Norma
Campbell says.
Due to a combination of high demand,
very sick patients and a lack of staff, Moorhouse Medical
and Riccarton Clinic are currently unable to see walk-in
patients and are taking enrolled patients by booked
appointment only for the remainder of today, Wednesday 28
September, and at Moorhouse Medical tomorrow, Thursday 29
September.
The 24 Hour Surgery is operating as normal
today but is busier than usual with waits of six hours or
more for patients with less urgent needs. Tomorrow and into
the weekend all three urgent care facilities will be very
busy and/or operating reduced services due to staffing
issues.
“Our Emergency Department is also
exceptionally busy and our hospital is operating over
capacity. We are taking a number of actions to free-up staff
capacity, such as postponing some surgeries and rescheduling
some outpatient appointments. Note, this will exclude all
gastroscopy and colonoscopy procedures as well as urgent
cancer surgeries.
“We apologise to everyone impacted
by delays in their care, but we need to take these measures
to ensure we can continue to provide emergency care,”
Norma Campbell says.
“People will be contacted
directly if their appointment needs to be rebooked. If you
haven’t heard from us, please assume that it is going
ahead. If you’re not sure, please phone the number on your
appointment letter.”
There are other things you can
do that will take the pressure off the system – you
can:
• Treat minor injuries yourself at home,
applying an ice pack or frozen peas to a sprain for example,
or clean and dress cuts and scrapes that don’t require
stitches.
• Low-grade fevers can be reduced with
over the counter medication such as paracetamol
•
Talk to your community pharmacist about issues that
non-prescription medication can help with, such as
less-severe pain, diarrhoea, hayfever or minor skin
complaints
• Call your GP team if you need a repeat
prescription – you may be able to get one without having
to make an appointment at the practice
• For
physical injuries that require physiotherapy, you don’t
need a referral from a doctor – you can go directly to a
physiotherapist who can handle your ACC claim too. You can
search for a Physiotherapy New Zealand member by area of
practice, keyword and location on physio.org.nz.
Urgent
clinics, reduced hours:
Due to reduced staff
capacity, Moorhouse Medical will be closed to urgent care
walk-ins for the remainder of today and tomorrow, Thursday
29 Sept. GPs there will be able to see only booked patients
until 6pm Monday- Friday. Moorhouse’s other services,
including their fracture clinic, will be running as
normal.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Moorhouse team
will be able to see urgent walk-ins during the reduced hours
of 8am to 2pm and on Monday until 4pm (instead of the normal
8pm).
Riccarton Clinic is seeing enrolled patients
with booked appointments only today and is expected to also
have reduced capacity to see urgent walk-ins tomorrow
(Thursday).
The 24 Hour Surgery is operating as normal
today but will have staffing issues tomorrow, 29
September.
Hours over the weekend will be updated on
Friday.
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