Three Wellington region patients die waiting for treatment

Saturday, 15 March 2025

A new healthcare harm report reveals 104 patients suffered severe damage from their care in 2023/24 - including 18 deaths - in a system buckling under pressure from all directions.

Three Wellington region patients died waiting for treatment in 2023/24, a new report reveals.

They were among 104 patients who suffered severe damage from their care, of whom 18 died.

The Capital, Coast, Hutt Valley (CCHV) draft annual report into healthcare harm depicts a system buckling under pressure from all directions. Five patients suffered “resource-related” serious harm, “where previously there had been none”.

Increased demand, full hospitals, staffing issues and long waits to see a GP all ramped up the pressure, the report said.

“There are increased presentations and longer wait times in emergency departments. We are also starting to see increased waits for some surgeries and procedures beyond the recommended timeframes as well as delays in treatment or transfer.”

CCHV is one of the few regions that still release annual summaries of medical harm incidents ‒ known as serious adverse events ‒ after the national requirement to do so was removed.

The 104 incidents included critical treatment delays, infections, pressure injuries, ignoring known allergies, and fatal falls.

Of the 12 delay cases, three patients had treatment stalled because they waited too long in the emergency department, four had a procedure or surgery delayed, three waited too long for scans, and two were not given medication on time.

The five incidents “related to organisational resources” included four patients who suffered “prolonged wait times” for surgery or a procedure, of whom three died before getting treatment. And one patient with a prolonged wait in ED.

Porirua GP and General Practice NZ chairman Bryan Betty said the three treatment delay deaths were no surprise.

Health NZ is failing to meet all its targets, with about a third of patients waiting longer than the target time for emergency department treatment, first specialist assessments and elective surgery.

“We know there's been resource constraints all over the system … The really important thing with these reports is that we work out how we prevent this happening.”

CCHV’s troubles are not unique. For the quarter ending September 30 , 2024, about a third of patients nationwide waited longer than the target time for emergency department treatment, first specialist assessments and elective surgery.

Long waits in the emergency department are often caused by bed block elsewhere in the hospital

Betty said patients denied specialist assessments or left languishing on treatment waiting lists visited their family doctor two to three times as often.

“So it's putting pressure back on general practice; it's costing the patient; it's costing the system.”

In the adverse events report, CCHV promised to prioritise reducing ED waits and stays.

However, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine New Zealand chair, Kate Allen, said there was no quick fix to ease pressure on emergency departments.

Australasian College for Emergency Medicine New Zealand chair Kate Allen says the current work environment is the worst she’s experienced in two decades.

EDs often become overloaded because there are no hospital beds to admit patients to. And hospitals become overfull because beds are taken up by patients who don’t need acute care, but have nowhere else to go ‒ such as older people waiting for rest home places, or people waiting for mental health beds.

So reducing ED waits required getting people out of hospital, either by increasing community care options, or preventing people getting sick enough to need admission, Allen said.

“It is really complex … Most of the fixes actually lie outside the emergency department.”

Allen, who works at Waitematā, said the combination of an overloaded system, and “very difficult and draining” health restructuring, made the current environment the worst she’d seen in 20 years on the job.

“You’re doing that, on top of our departments and hospitals being busier, significant workforce issues, and an underestimated hangover from Covid.

Porirua GP and GPNZ chair Bryan Betty says while the Government’s new measures to ease pressure on primary care are positive, “there's still a lot more work to be done”.

“We have to be hopeful that we’re going in the right direction. It just doesn’t feel like it.”

Health NZ apologised to any patients and whānau who had experienced “sub-optimal care”, and promised to learn from those failings. Nationwide, the agency was “deeply committed” to faster cancer treatment, shorter stays in ED and shorter waits for specialist assessments and surgery.

Planned elective surgery investment should fund an extra 10,579 operations by the end of June.

Other initiatives included transition lounges to free up hospital beds, allowing nursing staff to lead patient discharge and using telehealth to reduce specialist assessment waits, Health NZ said.

CCHV said it was also increasing ED nurse and senior doctor numbers, creating a new hybrid theatre suite, opening a 12-bed high dependency unit and establishing a Patient Flow Council to examine how patients move through the hospital.

Health Minister Simeon Brown last week announced funding for extra training places and placements for nurse practitioners and GPs, to ease pressure on primary care.

Betty said the new measures were a “positive step”.

“There's still a lot more work to be done.”