Middlemore Hospital’s emergency department has seen a record number of patients, including 135 children, treated on July 2nd.
The hospital has created 15 extra overflow beds a day to extend its winter ward capacity, and less acute patients are being given vouchers to go to after-hours or urgent care clinics instead.
College for Emergency Medicine NZ chair Kate Allan reported that EDs from “the bottom of the south to the top of the north” were 10 to 15% busier than last year.
The increase in respiratory illnesses is attributed to people tipping over and needing more hospital-level care than previously seen. Population growth also adds to the pressure, but ED nursing numbers are better than ever.
Both doctors urge people to stay well by visiting their GP, calling Healthline, getting vaccinated, and making sure their inhalers and other medications do not run out.
All of Auckland’s hospitals monitor the rate of secure acute respiratory infections. The hospitalization rate for the week ending 7 July was significantly higher than last year, at 11.37 people per 100,000 (127 patients), putting the region on the cusp of the Very High Activity category for the first time in the 10 years of records displayed.
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