Patients dying in corridors and waiting rooms amid 'code red' at Christchurch ED

Thursday, 25 September 2025

A Christchurch Emergency Department (ED) doctor says patients are dying in waiting rooms, corridors and the car park as Christchurch Hospital strains under critical overload.

Health New Zealand has responded by saying some of the doctor’s claims were out of context or based on historical incidents, including the reference to a sad event from three years ago in a car park, but concedes the hospital has been in and out of critical overload (the equivalent of “code red”) for several weeks.

Senior doctor Dominic Fleischer told 1News patients were dying because of substandard care, and the situation was hurting staff and those they were treating.

“Patients are dying now really because of substandard care. Patients dying in the waiting room and corridors or who leave and literally drop dead in the car park. So that's all happened. That's atrocious care at some stage and it hurts the staff when things like that happen,” he said.

Fleischer was one of 6000 hospital doctors and dentists striking this week seeking better pay and resourcing.

“We're in code red every day. Now that's our highest code of overload, and part of that plan, at some stage, is to set up a care facility outside of ED, literally a tent. In truth, there is a tent, but there's no staff to care for patients in that tent,” he said.

Some patients at the hospital were waiting more than 24 hours to be seen – the target was six.

The Press has asked Health NZ for the findings of a formal review into the death of a person who left Christchurch’s busier than usual emergency department and later died in 2022.

The person deteriorated shortly after leaving ED. When they returned to the ED they were seen immediately but did not respond to medical treatment and died the following day in the Intensive Care Unit.

HealthNZ acting executive regional director Te Waipounamu, Phil Wheble, said Christchurch was one of the busiest emergency departments in the country, but it also had the highest number of presentations, last quarter 81.5% of patients who were admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours, thanks to the amazing team of hard-working staff.

“There are volume pressures at Christchurch Hospital's emergency department, but steps are being taken to manage this and improve the acute flow,” he said.

Health NZ Canterbury group director of operations Hamish Brown said the ED at Christchurch Hospital had been in and out of critical overload (the equivalent of the previously used “code red”) for the past three to four weeks due to very high presentation rates.

“In this situation we use all available spaces to safely care for patients. This includes utilising spaces such as resuscitation bays or our consultation rooms to perform clinical assessments to maintain privacy,” he said.

“We never turn anyone away from emergency departments in any hospital across New Zealand when they need our care.”

Initiatives had been put in place, or were being worked on, to help manage the current high demand including fast-tracking pathways to enable faster admissions and offering alternative options to access care for those with lower acuity presentations.

Brown recently told The Press Christchurch Hospital’s ED has the highest numbers of presentations in the country, and last week saw “a very high number” of patients with injuries and illnesses, including the flu.

“To help manage wait times last Friday, we transferred more sub-acute patients to Burwood Hospital than our usual daily average,” he said.

The Press has asked Health NZ to provide capacity and patient figures including how often it had reached critical overload and the number of patients transferred to Burwood.

It said it would process the request under the Official Information Act, which gave Health NZ 20 working days to respond.