DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE

Welcome to Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department Website. Since inception in 1999 our emphasis has shifted towards informing those in the healthcare sector about the department from an employment perspective, as well as the training opportunities that exist here for medical, nursing and allied healthcare groups. We have new pages highlighting medical and nursing training.

Emergency Department
Emergency Clinical Pathways
Emergency Medical
Emergency Nursing
Emergency Support Staff

Emergency Department

The Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department (ED) is the sole emergency medical facility in Christchurch, and acts as the acute access point for all tertiary care in the Canterbury region.

The ED sees 72,000 patients annually, of which 48% get admitted. We are one of the busiest Emergency Departments in Australasia and are the sole Emergency Department for a population catchment of 500,000 people.

The Emergency Department underwent reconfiguration late 2007 into 2008 and officially opened in July 2008. Throughout that time the functioning of the department continued, with a great deal of team work. The department is now a 55 bedded area which is geographically divided into functional areas:

Emergency Observation Unit (ED obs) - a 10 bedded area for patients who require short term observation under the care of the ED team. 90% discharge within 8 hours.
Work Up (WU) - a 15 bedded area, inclusive of 4 separate isolation rooms, for patients who require 'work up' by ED or other speciality teams. Length of stay approximately4-6 hours.
Ambulatory - 5 bedded area, for patients requiring minor interventions.
Monitored / Resus / Trauma - comprises 10 monitored bays, 9 resus bays and 1 trauma room.

Our Department serves not only the city but the surrounding Canterbury region. We also receive aeromedical transfers from other parts of New Zealand, especially from the South Island.

Christchurch Hospital is a 650+ bed institution with full tertiary care facilities. It is one of eleven hospitals administered by Canterbury District Health Board. All major specialties are represented on-site, with the exception of Mental Health. Neo natal and womens’ hospital are now on site. Hospital inpatient occupancy rate generally runs between 90 - 95%.

Special nursing care should include the 24 bed Acute Medical Assessment Unit (AMAU) and the 12 bedded surgical Assessment and Review Area (SARA) which nurses can, in certain circumstances, refer directly to.

High dependency care is represented by;

Intensive Care 12 beds
Coronary Care 9 beds
Cardio-thoracic ICU 6 beds
Trauma Unit 5 beds
Bone Marrow Transplant Unit 15 beds
Neonatal ICU is offsite (but is due to move onsite to the new Womens Health wing in 2005)

Other high dependency facilities include Surgical/Medical/Burns/Dialysis and Paediatric HDUs.

Emergency Clinical Pathways

Click here to view Pathways role.

Emergency Medical

From Specialist Emergency Physicians to training Registrars, and Medical students, we receive numerous enquiries from around the globe regarding availability of positions. The combination of a popular and successful training program, aligned with a supportive working environment and ready access to skiing, climbing and marine-based pursuits, has resulted in our positions being competitively held.

Emergency Nursing

The advent of a Post-graduate Certificate in Emergency Nursing at Masters level has further enhanced the desirability of the department, for staff wishing to progress professionally while being able take advantage of the local lifestyle.

Emergency Support Staff

The Department works as a team. This requires crucial input from people with a variety of skills; from social workers, clerical, department assistants and administrative personnel. There are new opportunities.