COMMUNICATIONS

Media Release - 07/09/2004

Hospital to Cancel Some Elective Procedures in Medicine Tomorrow

Christchurch Hospital will cancel three cardiology catheterisations tomorrow as part of its planned measures to deal with current bed pressures.

The hospital’s Operations Manager Ruth Barclay said that in addition to the three cancellations, five patients over 65 years were being moved to Princess Margaret hospital.

Ms Barclay said that Christchurch Hospital was experiencing its normal winter load two months later than usual.

‘A lot of people have the flu including some of our staff which is exacerbating the situation,’ she said.

It was normal practice to move patients between hospitals when there was extreme pressure on bed space, but this year, the situation had been heightened by the norovirus which had hit some wards at TPMH a few weeks ago.

‘Now that the situation is back to normal at Princess Margaret, we are able to utilise their spare bed space,’ Ms Barclay said. In addition to the five patients being moved there from Christchurch hospital an additional three patients were going there directly rather than going through Christchurch hospital.

The Emergency Department remained very full, and this was due in part to the numbers of patients coming in and the numbers of patients already in hospital who were not ready to be discharged. Members of the public were responding really well to the hospital’s request that only urgent cases come to ED, she said.

The situation had improved slightly this afternoon and would be monitored again tomorrow.

Ends.

Vivienne Allan
Communications Manager
021-314-796