‘Additional monitoring’ would not have saved patient who died waiting at Waikato Hospital ED, Health NZ says

Thursday, 9 July 2026

Health NZ has completed a clinical review of a death at the Waikato Hospital Emergency Department (ED) last week, and found that additional monitoring would not have changed the outcome in this case.

It was alleged the patient who died had been found unresponsive in a toilet at the hospital after spending about nine hours waiting to be seen.

Ian Martin, Health NZ’s medical director of medicine at Waikato Hospital, had said the patient had been triaged upon arrival at the ED, but was “later found unconscious”.

The review findings, released on Thursday, did not identify that additional monitoring would have changed the outcome.

Monitoring of waiting rooms was “normal practice”, the Health NZ statement said, and was “being carried out on the day this patient was in ED”.

Health NZ said national guidelines were being worked on to “standardise the frequency and nature of that monitoring”.

“A group of experienced medical, nursing and allied health ED professionals will be established immediately to progress the development of the guidelines. We will work to have the guidelines operational within two months.”

Health NZ said in the statement it was also “reviewing signage in ED waiting rooms so patients have clear advice on what to do if their condition changes while they are waiting”.

Further investigations into the death of the patient last week were underway as well, Health NZ said, referring to the “more in depth” Serious Adverse Event Review with an expected completion date in August.

“The Serious Adverse Event Review will investigate all aspects related to the case. This includes the people involved, their tools and the internal and external environments,” the Health NZ statement said.

“The purpose of a Serious Adverse Event Review is to identify opportunities for learning and improvement with the goal of reducing preventable harm and continuously improving the quality and safety of patient care.”