Rolleston’s new after hours clinic reached full clinical capacity during each of its first three shifts as patients arrived with more serious conditions than had been anticipated.

Approximately 100 people presented at the clinic across Saturday and Sunday, with queues forming outside before opening on both days.

Around 60 patients were treated during the weekend.

Phoenix Healthcare Executive Lead of Operational Growth and Integration Raghav Shekhawat told chrislynchmedia.com they were very pleased with how the opening weekend went.

“Although the level of demand and, particularly, the acuity of some presentations was materially higher than we had anticipated for the first weekend,” Shekhawat said.

Most patients who received treatment were assessed as T3 or T4 presentations. Four patients were assessed as T2, while several others required more significant clinical management than had been expected under the initial service model.

Under the Australasian Triage Scale, T2 patients have conditions requiring assessment and treatment within 10 minutes. T3 patients should be treated within 30 minutes, while T4 patients should be treated within 60 minutes.

Some patients arrived with respiratory and cardiac conditions. They were assessed, treated, stabilised and monitored for several hours before being safely transferred to hospital.

The clinic reached full clinical capacity at approximately 1.30pm on Saturday and again at the same time on Sunday.

Shekhawat said the team could not treat everyone who arrived once that point had been reached. “Our priority throughout was to ensure that patients presenting were managed safely and that the clinical team did not take on more patients than they could safely care for,” he said.

Demand continued during the clinic’s first weekday evening. People began arriving from approximately 4.30pm before the clinic opened, with 28 people presenting during the evening.

Two nurses and one clinician triaged all 28 patients. Seventeen received treatment before the service reached capacity at approximately 6.30pm.

A second nurse was being incorporated into the staffing model in response to the presentation patterns seen during the initial shifts.

Shekhawat said the additional nurse would help ensure people could be appropriately triaged and any clinical risk identified, even when the clinic did not have capacity to treat everyone.

Phoenix Healthcare is working with Health New Zealand while the service becomes established. Demand, patient acuity, presentation patterns and staffing will be reviewed as more information becomes available.

Shekhawat said it would be premature to draw conclusions about the clinic’s permanent staffing model based on its first few days.

However, he said the opening had provided clear evidence of significant demand for after hours healthcare in Rolleston and the wider Selwyn community.

“People were waiting before the doors opened on both days of the first weekend and again before opening on the first weekday evening,” he said.

“While we expected the service to be well utilised, the immediate response from the community has been significant.”

Shekhawat said he was extremely proud of the clinical team for managing a greater level of demand and clinical acuity than anticipated while maintaining its focus on patient safety.

“In particular, the management and safe transfer of some of the more acute presentations demonstrated exactly why having skilled clinicians and appropriate triage available closer to home is so important,” he said.

The clinic is only a few days into operation. Its initial presentation patterns will be used to identify where the service model needs to be adapted.

Shekhawat said Phoenix Healthcare would continue working with Health New Zealand to ensure the service developed safely and sustainably for the Selwyn community.

Last week Health Minister Simeon Brown told chrislynchmedia.com “over time as demand increases, there will be options to look at whether the hours need to be extended.”

For more information on the clinic and times the public can go to this link.