Nurses are warning more people will die if the health sector's staffing crisis is not urgently fixed.
A patient died in Middlemore Hospital's Intensive Care after previously leaving the hospital due to high waiting times.
Middlemore Hospital is urgently investigating the death of a patient who left the emergency department because of long wait times. Meanwhile, staff at Palmerston North Hospital say their ED is unsafe.
Counties Manukau District Health Board said the woman who died in Intensive Care at Middlemore Hospital had shown up at the ED early on Wednesday.
She left, returning a few hours later critically ill.
"The circumstances of the patient leaving the hospital are being urgently investigated. We acknowledge this is an extremely stressful time for the family and we have instigated an immediate investigation into the case and circumstances," it said.
The DHB said the hospital was under extreme pressure with high numbers of patients.
Meanwhile, staff health and safety representatives at Palmerston North Hospital's ED had given managers a week to fix overcrowding and excessive workloads there.
The Nurses Organisation said staff had been warning for months that lives were at risk.
It said the representatives had issued three provisional improvement notices covering an overcrowded noisy work environment; lack of staffing resources resulting in untenable workloads; and staff wellbeing and stress, resulting in increased sick leave, burnout and resignations.
One of the representatives, Kirsten Caves, said conditions in the ED had "broken" some nurses.
"There is huge stress and burnout and large numbers of nurses and healthcare workers resigning as a result of that. It's not just in Palmerston North ED but across the country in healthcare we're looking at a healthcare system that is understaffed and overworked," she said.
Caves said cancelling some outpatient clinics and elective surgeries and reducing visitor numbers would help ease the pressure.
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine said emergency departments and health systems across Aotearoa were under extreme and unprecedented pressures.
It said the government's Budget last month failed to tackle areas that contributed to overcrowding and crippling wait times in emergency departments.
"Extended delays in acute care can lead to poorer clinical outcomes which can, at times, include death," the college said.
RNZ
