Waitemata DHB delivers on promise

14 September 2007

Waitemata DHB delivers on promise of new inpatient beds

Waitemata District Health Board (DHB) will open the promised new inpatient beds this month as part of its strategy to reduce instances of gridlock at North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals.

North Shore Hospital has consistently operated at 100 per cent occupancy through winter and continues to do so despite the change in season. Waitakere Hospital is running close behind.

In July the DHB responded by committing to more beds. As a result, four new medical beds opened at Waitakere Hospital today along with eight inpatient beds at North Shore Hospital on Monday 17 September.

“We’ll also be opening another four medical beds at Waitakere on September 24 which will release capacity at North Shore by freeing up four beds there,” says Waitemata DHB CEO Dave Davies.

The medical beds at Waitakere Hospital will be ‘outliers’, with medical teams visiting the patients occupying these beds as part of their home ward rounds.

A further five beds previously tagged for use as assessment, treatment and rehabilitation (AT&R) beds will also open on October 1.

“These new beds should make an immediate impact on our ability to reduce patient delays to acute services and improve patient flow through our hospitals,” Mr Davies says.

“When we operate in gridlock the demand for services and the pressure on our staff simply can’t be sustained, so I’m pleased the potential is now there to relieve some of that continuing pressure.

“However I also remain very clear that this is a short-term solution to our capacity issues and the long term planning we have underway remains critically important.”

Mr Davies says the nurse recruitment process has progressed well and there are enough nurses to staff the new beds with only a few vacancies left to fill.
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“Recruitment of doctors has been slower which has caused the staggered opening of the beds at Waitakere,” he says.

Waitemata DHB recently received its full allocation of population-based funding which has enabled it to open the additional, previously unfunded, bed spaces.

The increase in inpatient beds is part of a longer term plan, with the DHB signalling additional investment in further beds at North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals to open in 2008 and the expansion of the North Shore Hospital tower block (indicative completion date of 2013). A new emergency department and acute assessment centre at North Shore Hospital is planned for 2010.

ENDS

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