Leaked email highlights overcrowding, staffing crisis at Christchurch’s Emergency Department

A leaked email from a Christchurch Public Hospital senior manager has highlighted major concerns over resources at the Emergency Department.

It follows news first reported by Chris Lynch Media where a woman who left Christchurch’s busier-than-usual emergency department last Sunday night later died.

Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury’s chief medical officer Richard French confirmed the patient presented to Christchurch Hospital’s Emergency Department, and later died in its Intensive Care Unit.

In an email leaked to Chris Lynch Media, following news of the woman’s death, a senior manager at the hospital told staff “we need more nurses and doctors to run ED.”

“The patient presented at 17.11, Triage 3 and had a first ‘front of house’ assessment at the 3-hour mark.

The patient left from front of house, not wanting to wait any longer for more assessment and treatment.

The manager said “the patient got to her car collapsed and was brought back by her daughter.

The patient was then seen immediately and transferred to ICU where she died the following morning.

The triaging was correct. The patient was not sent away' or denied care.

The wait times were long for many patients. The department was overcrowded at the time by double the number of patients we are resourced for” the email said.

Most front of house staff were in resus. This is a systems failure not a failure on anyone's part to do their job correctly.

I am very sad that this has happened. A person has died, a family has lost a loved one.

We strive to give good care to our patients but we have been placed in a compromised position. This is a problem 10-15 years in the making with the health sector being significantly underfunded across both primary and tertiary care and healthcare workforces not prioritised.

Sadly even with our 39.9FTE announcement things will not change quickly and I am sure you have not missed the irony that the 39.9 FTE increase acknowledges the shortage we have been working with. We need more nurses and doctors to run this ED. We have the FTE now for nursing and the doctors have also this week have been given a small increase (not enough).

We are both now working to recruit but this will take time and until then we will do our best. I am grateful for any ideas you may have to make the work more manageable while we recruit to the staffing numbers we need.”

Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury Chief Medical Officer Richard French earlier said a formal review of the care provided to this person was underway.

“We acknowledge our ED was very busy during this period which meant wait times were longer than usual. 

 Our heartfelt sympathies remain with the whānau at this difficult time.”

Last week, Te Whatu Ora data released data to Newshub showing some regions are short 50 nurses in emergency departments alone.

In Canterbury, the data showed it was 12 ED nurses short.