{"id":493706,"date":"2026-06-24T20:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T20:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493706\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T20:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T20:34:10","slug":"emergency-doctors-warn-of-worsening-hospital-crisis-with-the-winter-flu-season-yet-to-peak-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493706\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency doctors warn of worsening hospital crisis with the winter flu season yet to peak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEvery emergency doctor that you speak to across the country will have some particularly sad stories from people who have prolonged lengths of stay sitting in plastic chairs in waiting rooms for 12 hours before they\u2019re even seen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what a wealthy, developed nation should be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He warned that patients could die as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got clear scientific evidence that people experience worse outcomes whenever health systems are overcrowded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you\u2019ve got a hospital that\u2019s 10% bed blocked, we know that the mortality rate goes up by about 10% as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bed blocking occurs when patients who need admission remain stuck in emergency departments waiting for a ward bed, preventing new arrivals from being assessed and treated.<\/p>\n

Allely said the flow-on effect was doctors being forced to care for patients in corridors, waiting rooms and other unsuitable spaces while ambulances waited outside hospitals unable to offload patients.<\/p>\n

Official data showed respiratory illness activity had been steadily increasing.<\/p>\n

Weekly Healthline calls for respiratory infections had been trending upwards since May and were similar to the average rates recorded between 2015 and 2019, as well as levels seen at the same time last year.<\/p>\n

Hospitalisation rates were also increasing<\/a>, although public health monitoring still classified overall respiratory illness activity as low and comparable to 2025 levels.<\/p>\n

Data from PHF Science showed four respiratory illness outbreaks were reported in the week ending June 14, including two in rest homes and two in early childhood education centres.<\/p>\n

Despite current activity remaining relatively moderate, Allely warned that the most challenging period for hospitals was likely still ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually it\u2019s sometime in August or September when we see the peak,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019ve got a system that has almost zero surge capacity, that\u2019s going to lead to people waiting longer in emergency departments, waiting longer to get off ambulances and probably waiting longer to be seen in the community as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand said winter was always a busy period for health services and planning for this year\u2019s season had been underway since March.<\/p>\n

Executive regional director central Chris Lowry said preparations included additional staff, extra bed capacity and increased community-based care aimed at reducing pressure on hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlu is already having an impact in New Zealand, with July typically the peak of the flu season,\u201d Lowry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage those with non-urgent concerns to consider other options for access to acute care, including Healthline, local GPs, healthcare providers and community pharmacies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand said emergency departments remained open 24 hours a day and anyone needing urgent care should attend ED or call 111 without delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEvery emergency doctor that you speak to across the country will have some particularly sad stories from people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[537,3528,15974,1379,134,2241,111,139,69,1118,13028,37250,6926,16189,223,61,26697,23644,102,59039,9184],"class_list":["post-493706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-crisis","tag-doctors","tag-emergency","tag-flu","tag-health","tag-hospital","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-peak","tag-penny","tag-season","tag-smith","tag-the","tag-to","tag-warn","tag-winter","tag-with","tag-worsening","tag-yet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}