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MEDIA UPDATE

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Update on Regional Emergency Response to Christchurch Earthquake

Issued on behalf of:
Counties Manukau District Health Board (CMDHB)
Auckland District Health Board (ADHB)
Waitemata District Health Board (WDHB)
Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS)
Northland District Health Board (NDHB)

Today’s media update on the emergency response and support from the Counties Manukau, Auckland and Waitemata DHBs, Northland DHB and the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

Each organisation’s Incident Management Team continues to work closely to support Canterbury at this time. We are endeavouring to provide regular regional media updates and ask, as much as possible, please do not call during this emergency response phase. Thank you for your patience.

Counties Manukau District Health Board (CMDHB)

• Middlemore is still at capacity.
• We had 2 people who were evacuated and who needed treatment overnight.
• We had a great red and black day and raised over $3000 for Christchurch.

Auckland District Health Board (ADHB)

We have received another patient, so we now have:
• 4 x children
• 5 x adults
• 11 x home dialysis patients
• The four aged residential care patients have all been now been placed in residential care.

Staff - Information about who has been deployed:
• 6 x orthopaedic specialists coming back today (5 surgeons and 1 fellow)
• 7 x cardiac specialists (various clinical roles went yesterday)
• a neonatal nurse going tomorrow

Capacity - Capacity is slightly better. We are at:
• 94% adult (38 beds free)
• 97% children (4 beds free)
• 80% women's (21 beds free)
• Intensive care capacity:
• Dept Critical Care Medicine 5 beds (of 14)
• Surgical High Dependency Unit 2 beds (of 4)
• Cardio-Vascular Intensive Care Unit 8 beds (of 16)
• Paediatric Intensive Care 0 beds (of 11)
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit 0 (of 42)

Waitemata District Health Board (WDHB)

Waitemata DHB are working with Primary Care in the region to establish effective procedures to support people from Canterbury. There is regional consistency and good engagement by GP's Primary Health Organisation's, Accident & Medical Centres and community pharmacies. This focus is important as people are staying with families, friends, billets and in Civil Defence arranged accommodation.

Waitemata DHB hospitals are currently very busy meeting the needs of our local population. We are however working with the National Coordination Centre and Canterbury DHB to accommodate any requests for care for people from Canterbury. People from Christchurch staying in Auckland continue to present in small numbers for Emergency Department assessment and some people have needed assessments from flights.

The current staff and patient situation:

• 11 home dialysis patients continue to receive treatment. No new patients have transferred to the northern region.

• 14 elderly people remain in the aged residential care facility. No new people have transferred to the northern region. Waitemata DHB has capacity to assists with any other transfers that are required.

• Waitemata DHB has one staff member in Christchurch at present and two on standby.

Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS)

No update today.

Northland District Health Board (NDHB)

Canterbury patients transferred to Northland for care and treatment:
• 10 dialysis patients and 3 caregivers

Staff - Information about who has been deployed:
• 1 x medical officer of health
• 1 x social worker (based in West Coast)
• 2 x mental health nurse
• 1 x aged residential care nurse
• 1 x general practitioner (Pegasus Health)

Other information
• Elective surgery and outpatient appointments continue as normal.
• Red & Black Day - this Friday, Northland DHB staff will raise funds for NZ Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.

Further updates will be provided as necessary. Thank you to all media outlets for your patience.

ENDS

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