Christchurch ‘needs a second hospital’ as 470 people pour into emergency department on one day

Thursday, 23 July 2026

Christchurch Hospital is “bursting at the seams” according to a staff member, while patients have described long waits at the Emergency Department.

On Monday, Health NZ said there were 471 presentations to ED, well up on the June average of 435 per day.

A person who attended Christchurch Hospital’s Emergency Department on Monday said in a post on social media the hospital had been put into “critical overload”.

“The emergency department’s trauma resuscitation areas are full at capacity, severely limiting the ability to take on new life-threatening emergencies,” they said.

Another patient on Monday evening said they had been waiting for hours for a bedto get a blood transfusion. “So urgent and still waiting for a bed.”

“There are people who have stubbed their toe waiting for ED - please, please don’t go to the hospital for non-emergency,” the patient said.

One person said they had been waiting five hours with their mother for scheduled surgery, and heard ED was so overcrowded they were considering setting up a tent outside.

Health NZ Canterbury group director of operations Hamish Brown confirmed the Emergency Department was busier than usual on Monday.

Patient flow was maintained and staff prioritised those with the greatest clinical need.

People with less urgent presentations may have faced longer waits, but the maximum wait for an inpatient bed on Monday was about 4.5 hours.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate and Christchurch healthcare assistant Al Dietschin said the hospital had been “bursting at the seams over capacity for some time”.

ED was regularly seeing more than 400 people a day, he said.

“You get bed block. When there’s no beds available in wards it creates a back log of people waiting for beds in corridors in ED. It becomes overwhelming.”

Dietschin said issues stemmed from a lack of investment in primary care, meaning ED was seeing more people with chronic illnesses that had not been dealt with early enough.

He said the Waipapa Building, which houses ED, was already at capacity when it opened in 2020.

“It’s getting to the stage we need a second hospital to accommodate the population growth,” he said.

“There’s just isn’t enough beds. And even if we had more beds there’s no staff.”

“There’s also so many staff off sick and there’s no real planning into covering that unplanned leave, so we have to work short-staffed, especially at night.

“I work in a 32-bed ward and we can have…only four registered nurses on and no health care assistants on the floor because of the high volumes of patient watches and close observations needing to be done. It’s really unsafe to have that many staff for really unwell patients.”

Health NZ said last month the hospital had seen a steady increase in presentations throughout 2026, with its daily average rising from 384 patients in January to 435 in June. About 69% to 73% of patients were treated and discharged without being admitted.

Brown encouraged people requiring hospital-level care to go to the Emergency Department when needed.

“We have planned for a challenging winter and have a range of measures in place to support patient care and help us manage periods of exceptionally high demand,” he said.

“This includes dedicated and experienced staff working across Christchurch Hospital to improve patient flow and manage periods of high occupancy.”

He encouraged people with non-urgent health concerns to consider alternative care options such as Healthline, general practice (GPs), urgent care services, community pharmacies and telehealth services.

“This is particularly important over the winter months when demand for healthcare services is at its highest,” he said.

Health NZ was approached for comment.