Extra emergency work at hospital

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 14

Extra emergency work at hospital

The holiday period has meant a great deal of extra work for the staff of the accident and emergency department at Christchurch Hospital with a record number of attendances for a month occurring in December.

The head of the depart- : ment (Dr R. D. Scott) said ( yesterday that for some' time the monthly attendance , had been between 5000 and ] 6000 but last month it rose , to 6938. i Much of the increase was ■ caused by visitors to Christ- , church attending the department for non-emergency medical attention or Christ- ■ church people whose own ! doctors were away. ; “We can’t turn people , away but attending to these j non-emergency cases does; interfere with our basic j work of looking after acci- I dent cases and other enter- 1 gencies,” said Dr Scott. II The greater number ofp attendances meant that extra i staff had to be called in from!! other departments, but this Is interfered with their regular i work, said Dr Scott. j He said that although extra i< staff could be brought ink from other parts of the hos-L pita! a time would come 1 'when all the patients and't

staff could not be accommo-i dated. A new department was! provided for in the redevelop-! ment of Christchurch Hos--ipital. said Dr Scott, but he! could not see this coming! within 15 years. The existing department would be too small before then. Any attempt to expand the present premises meant that someone else had to move and find other accommodation but this was virtually impossible. Dr Scott said that no particular arrangements were being made for the New Zealand Games as it was felt ■that the normal procedures ! would be adequate. During the Commonwealth Games last year the accident and emergency department had | not been as busy as expected. “The expected call on our services just did not eventuate, so we are learning from that experience for the next Games,” s|id Dr Scott.