And it doesn’t look like it’s because of covid. At least not yet. Their winter season will be starting shortly.
Hospitals across the country have reached crisis point, with several emergency departments at capacity.
“Patients are stuck. They’re in corridors. They’re spending six, eight, 12 hours in the emergency department where we’re forced to try and provide them longitudinal care,” Dr Bonning said.
Some ED shifts were functioning with only two thirds of their normal number of nurses.
“Some of the main challenges are for nurses continuing to manage with increased numbers of patients presenting while they’re working with short staffing,” Stebbings said.
“Sometimes the space isn’t available so corridor spaces are being used in many departments. There’s not enough staff to open up the new areas where new departments have been built and also the challenge of continuing to care for patients while they wait for transfers to wards, often for prolonged periods of time.”
“Emergency nurses were often battling a constant fatigue from the increased demands when they just wanted to provide the best care possible, she said.
Dunedin Hospital declared a code black yesterday after reaching capacity.
At one point, 18 patients were stuck in the Emergency Department awaiting a bed with only three available in the wards.
Read the whole thing.
Call it a hunch but maybe it’s the socialism?🤷♂️
Oh, and their economy isn’t looking too healthy either.
-update- some excellent responses in the comment section. Be sure to check them out. 👍
Sorry, but I cannot help but laugh at this news.
New Zealand is currently run by a new age, incompetent kook.
You get what you vote for.
Are the citizens not in their 4th lockdown?
Who ya gonna call now?
Burn out of the Healthcare workers as their replacements wait to be trained…
Welcome to the new normal world.
Bet they were told too on flattening the curve.
You’ll probably see similar in Australia. Among the many reasons the one that sticks out is: everyone assumes that Public medicine is free, as in there simply isn’t a cost, and its a God (or Allah) given right..
Ozzie buddy of mine waited just over a year for a hernia operation. He admitted the wait was due to a shortage of doctors. But it was free, though.
Vote for a crazy globalist bitch then sit back and watch the magic.
Just like we did in Canada.
Interesting take here:
https://twitter.com/PeculiarBaptist/status/1375263947016691713?s=20
“Control healthcare, you control the people.” — Saul Alinsky
NHS has annual stories about “hospitals overrun”, Canada, Australia, … . Everywhere there is a socialist creep, they have the media pushing crises that only “Big Brother can save us from”.
This is serious. They’re barely able to get one dancing Tik Tok video out per week now.
Can’t be Covid. Officially, they have 71 active cases in the entire country.
Nope, says right here it’s ED.
“Some ED shifts were functioning with only two thirds of their normal number of nurses.”
Poor buggers, they need nurses.
I took a look at their PM and et violà! Having to look at that, well, that may be the whole problem right there.
… or have I misread something?
Glad that not like here in B.C. I hAD A MEDICAL PROBLEM A WHILE BACK.sPENT 12 HOURS IN EMERG AND THEN WHEN ADMITTED SPENT 4 OUT OF 8 DAYS IN THE HALLWAY.
OH WAIT.!!!
8 years ago I had a massive infection of my blood. Serious stuff. I spent 4 weeks in hospital, half of which was for heart surgery to replace the valve the buggers ate.
I spent time in a hallway, or something, too. But I talked to my family doctor, because she sent me to the ER. When she found out where I was (I forget if she called me or was visiting her patients at the hospital) she raised bloody hell with the hospital.
The moral.
Get yourself a family doctor who has rights to access your local hospital (it’s not guaranteed, I think).
The facts in the linked article may or may not be true. However, do not trust the slant, as all MSM outlets in NZ are socialist rags, and RNZ (= Radio New Zealand), government owned, is among the most left-wing (usually very pro- the current Labour administration).
One of the links is to a union website, so the article may simply be a puff piece for the nurses union agitating for increased pay.
I had the misfortune to spend some time in one of the district health boards recently (ED followed by a couple of outpatient visits). ED was the better (newer, younger staff) part. I would characterise the public health system here as over-staffed, highly inefficient in its use of manpower (delays, errors, confusion, duplication), and under-funded as regards equipment and general upkeep. Equipment such as scanners is largely in the private health care system (I presume the public money goes largely on staff). When I first visited outpatients, there was paint peeling of the wall of the doctor’s consultation room (quick re-paint before my next visit). Like the NHS in the UK, quite a high proportion of the staff look unhealthy (e.g. overweight to obese, walk with difficulty, etc.).
From 2008 to 2017, the previous National administration (= approx. centre-right/Labour-lite) successfully introduced targets into the public health system (district health boards), including waiting times for Eds. Things were improving, albeit slowly. The system of targets was immediately abandoned by the current Labour administration (who came to power 3.5 years ago, 2017).
NZ’s economy appears to have proved remarkably resilient through the Covid debacle (despite the best attempts of the current administration to destroy it). So the FT article (I cannot read it behind the paywall) may equally be spin.
The first Covid lockdown in NZ last year, one of the most severe in the world, was introduced as a short-term measure to prevent the public health system being overwhelmed. IIRC over 10% of cases were medical staff. Like the NHS in the UK, the NZ public health system does not appear capable of the basic hygiene measures required to reduce transmission of the disease in hospitals (unlike poorer countries like say Greece and I think Portugal, who seem to be quite good at it).
Lockdown for this reason morphed into the current “zero Covid” psychosis without public or parliamentary debate. The Labour Party has an absolute majority in parliament now, for better or worse, general opinion is in favour of the “zero Covid” policy.
“general opinion is in favour of the “zero Covid” policy.”
Ah yes. The gift that will keep on giving. What more could power-hungry politicians and bureaucrats wish for but solid support from the sheep for their fleecing and slaughter?
Epic, why would one need nurses if one has ED, you have to treat the ED with something first, or you will only piss off a nurse. Likely the ED was caused, from looking at their PM, that thing would give Billybob clintin ED!
It is heartbreaking to learn that NZ nurses no longer have time for tiktok videos.
The conditions being described as “overrun” would be Nirvana in much of Canada, our healtcare system is worse than this on a good day.
Nailed it, Peter.
My missus works and has worked in the NZ health service as a nurse for the last 15 years having escaped from 30 years that was and is the hell that is the UK’s NHS.
NZ health service is heading the same way as the NHS it’s just a couple decades behind but catching up real fast. ( Fun fact NHS devised by Aneurin Bevan a Welsh communist who succeeded in creating the perfect communist system where the workers are peasants and the “educated” elites are pretty much millionaires and in the process destroyed the community and philanthropic based health care that had seen the UK lead the world in health care up until the 1950s and the creation of the NHS).
With the socialists in charge the speed goes to warp drive. With the incompetent useless bint of a PM we now have ( only job she has ever had was working? for Tony Blair ) the entire country is heading for the obvious calamity only globalist loving elites can manage.
Housing bubble exploding compounded by zero interest rates.
Quantitative easing ( pump and dump) of economy with helicopter money or rather printing of money of which the last government bonds failed to sell the allocation.
The wrecking of export economy, 3rd largest contributor used to be the petrochemical industry until to get power the bint bribed the Greens into a coalition and banned drilling thus she gained power and instantly promoted the country to a “geo-politically unstable entity” ( quote from the CEO of TAG oil the largest ( and Canadian) onshore producer of gas) and hey presto within a year Shell , AWE and all those others (think Statoil/ anadarko/ Chevron) lining up to explore had cut and run thus leaving tourism and agriculture to fill the $64+ mm dollar hole in finances.
And then we had the scam or fake pandemic, the so called successful lockdown and hey guess what ………
yep messed up like only socialism can do.
Still the worlds media love the bitch.
This is very briefly touched at in the article, but I bet a part of the problem is that people who couldn’t or wouldn’t go to the doctor or the hospital for fear of Covid are now dealing with issues that cannot be ignored, and in some cases would have been easier to deal with if they had been caught and dealt with earlier. That’s not a phenomenon unique to NZ, but in a system like theirs its a lot harder to play catch-up.
That’s something that often gets overlooked as the CD-19 numbers still get reported: How many people died or will die because they couldn’t get proper medical diagnosis and/or treatment for non-Covid problems, especially during the March-June 2020 period.
One thing that you will never see in government run hospitals, a giant billboard outside showing the wait time until you are likely to see a doctor, because that’s often measured in hours not minutes.
Actually JD
I saw one in Calgary at the Shawnessy Emerg Clinic not more than a month ago.
FIRST TIME Ever….made the mistake of going in around 2:00 Pm….walked out at 5:30 PM..but had no choice. Big honking Digital sign.
Yes, the Toronto Red Star pretty much writes this same story every year:
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/04/16/surge-in-patients-forces-ontario-hospitals-to-put-beds-in-unconventional-spaces.html
Check the date: this was both during the previous Liberal government and in April…in other words, just about the same time as the regular seasonal uptick.
https://mapper.kflaphi.ca/respmapper/analysis/ontario-charts
I think I have said this before but I’ll say it again and maybe a couple of people will start to understand the crap we’re in. Back in the late 50″s early 60″s we had a medical system called PSI ” Physician Services Insurance”. It was administered by the doctors and any one could afford the premiums and NO ONE was turned away from Emergency . We then had a socialist by the name of Tommy Douglas who pushed for a Government run medical system. The result is what we have now. Over bloated, non caring, poorly equipped and badly run system…which we are constantly being told is The Best In The World. Because its costing billions of dollars and we just need a little bit more and it will be even better. My wife was a nurse for 35 years and the frustration she had to endure because of a management group who knew nothing about running a hospital and the amount of bureaucrats needed to run the system was staggering. She always said if the cut 2 or 3 levels of administration we would have a very affordable and well run system. We need to get rid of the political appointed managers and get ones who know what they are doing. Steve O (rant over)
Steve, you nailed it!
BINGO….have heard identical comments from friends in said BS system, where I had to wait 18 months before I got my first appointment to see a KNEE surgeon….then 2 weeks later started getting angina- 5 by passes 8 Months later….and then another 6 months before the knee actually got done. At no time did I see or hear of any Overrun Hospitals whatsoever and I asked pretty much every Nurse I was dealing with….At no time did i see ANYONE lying in the hallways….100% MEDIA enhanced Bullshit.
Cdn Hospitals Are ALWAYS FULL as are their ICU’s. COVID had SFA to do with an increase or decrease in that situation…because that is all a pile of HORSESHIT.
In Alberta, nurses have something known as “X” days.
When a nurse takes a position, they can select it based upon the number of hours they want to work weekly. For example they can get a 50% “line” where they only work about 18.75 hours a week. Any additional hours they work that week are paid at an overtime rate of 1.5 times their normal pay.
Since the hospitals almost always seem to be short staffed, many work a normal 37.5 hour week with the second 18.75 hours paid as overtime.
The Kiwis need better Leadership then this loike maybe a Conservative instead of a pathetic little pipsqueak