Christchurch’s hospital emergency and urgent clinics fully stretched

Ōtautahi - Christchurch hospital’s emergency department and urgent care facilities are under significant pressure, Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury,

There were 368 presentations to the emergency department yesterday which is exceptionally busy for midweek, and 101 people were either being treated or waiting to be seen as at 4pm.

If people don’t need emergency care but have issues they can phone Healthline on 0800 611 116 any time of the day or night and they can advise what to do and where to go if people need to be seen urgently. People can also call their general practice or speak to a pharmacist for health advice.

There is no single condition causing the high demand, it is a range of illnesses affecting the community.

Te Whatu Ora Waitaha has apologised to those who are having to wait and they understand it can be particularly distressing for those who are unwell.

Due to a combination of high demand, very sick patients and a lack of staff, Moorhouse Medical and Riccarton Clinic are unable to see walk-in patients and are taking enrolled patients by booked appointment only for today.

The 24 hour surgery is operating as normal but is busier than usual with waits of six hours or more for patients with less urgent needs. Tomorrow and into the weekend all three urgent care facilities will be very busy and / or operating reduced services due to staffing issues.

“The hospital’s emergency department is exceptionally busy and the hospital is operating over capacity. They are postponing some surgeries and rescheduling some outpatient appointments. This excludes all gastroscopy and colonoscopy procedures as well as urgent cancer surgeries.

People will be contacted directly if their appointment needs to be rebooked.

There are other things people can do that will take the pressure off the system:

•           Treat minor injuries yourself at home, applying an ice pack or frozen peas to a sprain for example, or clean and dress cuts and scrapes that don’t require stitches.

•           Low grade fevers can be reduced with over the counter medication such as paracetamol

•           Talk to a community pharmacist about issues that non-prescription medication can help with, such as less-severe pain, diarrhoea, hayfever or minor skin complaints

•           Call a GP team if people need a repeat prescription.

•           For physical injuries that require physiotherapy, doctor referrals are not needed.

Urgent clinics, reduced hours:

Due to reduced staff capacity, Moorhouse Medical will be closed to urgent care walk-ins today. GPs there will be able to see only booked patients until 6pm Monday to Friday. Moorhouse’s other services, including their fracture clinic, will be running as normal.

On Saturday and Sunday, the Moorhouse team will be able to see urgent walk-ins during the reduced hours of 8am to 2pm and on Monday until 4pm (instead of the normal 8pm).

Riccarton Clinic is seeing enrolled patients with booked appointments only today and is expected to also have reduced capacity to see urgent walk-ins tomorrow (Thursday).

The 24 hour surgery is operating as normal but will have staffing issues today.