The union declined to give details about the other death, as the case was before the coroner.
Of the heart attack incident, the union’s letter said a patient arrived at the ED with chest pain and there was a delay in securing a department bed.
The patient had a heart attack, required emergency clot-busting treatment, and was urgently transferred to Waikato for cardiology care, it said.
Rotorua Hospital ED nurse and NZNO delegate Lyn Logan told the Rotorua Daily Post two patients had died since 2024.
Logan said it was winter when the patient had a heart attack.
“Basically, we were access-blocked because we had an increased amount of medical patients waiting to get a bed on the ward.”
Access block is a delayed admission to hospital from the emergency department.
“We had to try and move patients out to get that patient in so that patient wasn’t seen within the triage 2 [target of] 10 minutes.
“If you’ve got no bed in the department to put them in, that’s the risk … because you have got nowhere to see them whatsoever.”
Logan said nurses had been waiting for a staffing uplift since 2024.
“We’ve waited … we’ve escalated, we’ve had conversations about it, but we’ve just got minimal FTE [full-time equivalent roles] back.”
She said Health New Zealand’s September announcement that 380 more FTE roles would be funded nationally, including 6.94 FTE for Rotorua Hospital, was ”still not what we are supposed to have”.
“I don’t think it’s good enough that our community suffer because they can’t match their budget with the demand that we’re having in the hospital.”
She said access block was a “huge” and ongoing issue.
“We want our patients to feel safe, we want to give timely care in our EDs, and we can’t do that if we’re constantly blocked and have no place to see them.”
NZNO delegate and Rotorua Hospital Emergency Department nurse Lyn Logan pictured at a strike in Rotorua last year. Photo / Megan Wilson
The letter said “hundreds” of incident reports relating to unsafe staffing had been submitted.
It said the gap between patient demand and available resources kept widening, leaving staff unable to provide the level of care the community deserved.
Running at 100% over capacity had become “average” for the emergency department, extending to 200% or 300% “at times” during winter.
Staff called for Health New Zealand’s urgent approval to recruit 20.43 FTE registered nurses and healthcare assistants – a figure identified through the care capacity demand management (CCDM) process used by Health New Zealand.
Staff also called for a commitment to nurse-to-patient ratios that reflected patient care needs and demand.
It is the latest in a series of states of emergency or crises declared by union ED nurses in the past few months, including at Tauranga Hospital.
Health NZ responds
Health New Zealand Lakes operations group director Kathy Rex said it had thanked the union for outlining the union’s concerns.
“We recognise Rotorua’s Emergency Department, along with all other EDs nationwide, has been under significant pressure this past winter.”
She thanked ED staff for “their exceptional commitment to patient care in challenging circumstances”.
Rex said Health New Zealand would work with the union to review staffing requirements for Rotorua’s emergency department.
Nationally, work was underway to strengthen how it planned for, managed and assured nursing staffing across the organisation.
“We are continuing to strengthen the wider health system so people can access the care they need.”
This included prevention, early intervention and services closer to home, while ensuring patients received the right care when hospital treatment was required.
Rex said Health New Zealand was dedicated to ensuring Lakes residents could access safe, high-quality care, while supporting the workforce that delivered it.
Health New Zealand treated any adverse event involving a patient extremely seriously.
On the patient deaths, Rex said it was inappropriate to comment when circumstances were under review.
A 2024 death was with the coroner, she said.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.