AM host Ryan Bridge has hit out at Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand after it refused to front for an interview to discuss Waikato Hospital having the worst-ever day of 'ramping'.
Almost every ambulance in the region was parked for up to four hours waiting to get into the Emergency Department (ED) on Monday. Five of those ambulances had seriously ill patients on board.
Ramping is not new but it's becoming frustratingly familiar. Anything over a 30-minute wait time to clear patients from an ambulance into the emergency department is considered 'ramping'.
Hato Hone St John said ambulances around the country were parked up on Monday waiting to get into EDs for a total of 204 hours. On a normal winter's day, they'd be 'ramped' for a total of 130 hours nationally.
AM asked a Te Whatu Ora spokesperson to front for an interview on Wednesday to discuss the issue. But the national health agency declined, instead sending page-long statements to AM.
That bothered Bridge, who said someone needed to front.
"I'm sorry, this is what they're doing. They're writing page-long statements to media with their dozens and dozens and dozens of communications staff, rather than getting us front-line staff," he said.
Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall also refused to front for an interview on AM but instead sent a statement thanking hospital staff for working tirelessly to care for patients as quickly as possible.
"Te Whatu Ora has informed me that there was a busy period of approximately four hours at Waikato Hospital on Monday night," Dr Verrall said.
"As it is winter, more people who are unwell with cold and flu symptoms put pressure on EDs. I thank hospital staff working tirelessly to care for patients as quickly as possible."
Dr Verrall revealed earlier this year Te Whatu Ora has 173 communications employees. On top of that, there are at least 26 contractors, which takes the national health agency up to about 200 people in communications all-up.
Bridge told the show it's "disgraceful" Te Whatu Ora doesn't front up for interviews.
"I would like to say, Laura [fellow AM co-host Laura Tupou], you did a fabulous job of reading all of that, but we shouldn't have to do that. We should be hearing from one of the 200 comms staff at Te Whatu Ora and I think it's disgraceful they don't front on these issues."
Creation of Te Whatu Ora hasn't helped - NZ Ambulance Association
Mark Quin, from the NZ Ambulance Association, told AM on Wednesday there are a number of reasons why the worst-ever day of 'ramping' occurred.
He told AM co-host Laura Tupou Monday is normally a busy day for ambulance staff as patients are unable to access healthcare through their local GPs over the weekend, so they hold on until the beginning of the week.
Quin said what happened on Monday is not unusual in New Zealand and is also common in overseas countries like Australia and the United Kingdom.
"What is holding up Emergency Departments across the country is the fact people are unable to access health care through their GP or other primary health providers because of delays in getting an appointment, which would be six weeks," he said.
"Sometimes these people actually need to be seen on the day. What happens is they are… now using the ambulance service as a pseudo sort of primary health service."
He suspects what happened at Waikato Hospital was the waiting room was full of patients with minor conditions because they were unable to access primary health care.
Quin told AM the pressure on the entire health system is creating a flow-on effect throughout the industry, which led to the 'ramping'.
"If the services aren't available in the community, it's hard for the nurses and the doctors to discharge from a ward," he told AM.
"It has a flow-on effect right down to the emergency department who are unable to get their patients into the wards and therefore it flows on to the ambulances who are sitting with the patients, unable to get them into there."
Watch the full interview with Mark Quin in the video above.
