Key points:
- A woman died in the waiting room at Rotorua’s emergency department last month after waiting three hours to be seen.
- Health Minister Shane Reti says it is one of the high performing emergency departments, but he sought assurances over safety.
- Reti and Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall expressed their condolences to the woman’s family.
Health Minister Shane Reti sought assurances over safety following the death of a woman who was waiting for care at Rotorua Hospital’s emergency department.
It was revealed today the woman died in the waiting room of the emergency department last month, after waiting three hours to be seen.
RNZ reported staff said the patient should have been seen within an hour but the department was short-staffed, and staff had written to management just two weeks earlier signalling concerns about excessive wait-times.
The cause of death has not yet been confirmed but reports suggest she suffered a cardiac arrest. She collapsed in the waiting room and could not be revived, RNZ said.
This morning, Reti said he was “really sorry” to learn of the death and sent his condolences to the family.
“Obviously that’s a sad event.”
He said until an interim report was done into it, he didn’t intend to comment further. He said the report would reveal how the incident came to be.
“I will comment it is one of the high performing emergency departments, so I am encouraged by that.
“In emergency departments you see emergencies, that’s its purpose.”
Reti said he had sought assurances that services were safe, staff were safe and “that the outcomes are safe”.
He said by high performing that meant the hospital had some of the shortest stays in its emergency department in the last quarter to March – in the top five.
“That doesn’t meant there’s not challenges.
“There’s no doubt that the emergency departments are under stress, absolutely.
“This is a very unfortunate episode [in] Rotorua.”
Concern had also been expressed about Rotorua doctors having to cover gaps in Taupō.
“As we’ve moved to regions, that ability for specialists to be recruited into regions and have that responsibility across a region is one of the advantages of regionalisation.
“Secondly, some of the very high quality telehealth providers, who are FACEM specialists, ED specialists, they are providing services as needed across a range of hospitals.
“Yes I am assured by Health New Zealand that services are safe in the emergency department in Rotorua, and in Taupō.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the issue should not be politicised, but said it was a tragedy for the family of the person who died.
He said an investigation into the details of how the death occurred needed to take place, but the health system was “under a lot of pressure”.
The health system required more funding, he said, and more people.
“The current Government [is] trying to convince New Zealanders that you can have a better health system with fewer people in it and with less funding. That’s just simply not the case.”
Hipkins said Reti could have used “more sensitive” words than to describe the death as “unfortunate”, saying it minimised it.
“It’s a tragedy, it’s an absolute tragedy.”
Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said all death in hospitals were a “tremendous tragedy” and her heart went out to the family and loved ones of the person who died.
“I also feel for the staff.
“It’s always hard to have a death of someone in your care, and then also to know, in this particularly tragic situation, that they had raised concerns about understaffing in their department.”
Verrall said there were thousands of safety risks in the New Zealand health system while $1.4 billion was “cut” from it. She said there was no transparency about the impact cuts made on the system’s safety.
“I am not reassured by Dr Reti’s assurances.”
She said Labour had an approach where it filled staff gaps to address issues.
Lakes District group director operations Alan Wilson said Te Whatu Ora offered its condolences to the patient’s loved ones, and told RNZ an internal review would be carried out.
