![\"Waikato](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/waikato-hospital-accident-and-emergency-department-entry-ham-WPOZNOU425DTTFLW7G4GZ6UJ5I.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHealth Minister Simeon Brown says his heart goes out to the family and loved ones of a person who died while waiting to be seen at Waikato Hospital this week.<\/p>\n
1News understands a patient died in a toilet at the emergency department of the hospital after waiting more than nine hours to be seen.<\/p>\n
A witness, who was at the hospital shortly after the man was found unconscious by a member of the public, said family were there and were “distraught”.<\/p>\n
It’s understood the man, aged in his mid 50s, had presented at the emergency department at 3.40pm on Monday. <\/p>\n
Police confirmed receiving report of a death at a medical facility on Pembroke St in Hamilton just before 2am today. <\/p>\n
Waikato Hospital medical director of medicine Ian Martin told 1News in a statement the patient presented to the emergency department last night and was triaged on arrival.<\/p>\n
“The patient was later found unconscious and efforts to resuscitate them were sadly unsuccessful,” Martin said.<\/p>\n
“An immediate clinical review into the death is underway to identify any immediate actions for improvement. This review will be completed this week.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Waikato Hospital accident and emergency department entry (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Longer term, Martin said Health New Zealand has commenced a serious adverse event review into the death and also began to “identify any wider learnings for staff”. This review was expected to be completed within two months.<\/p>\n
Martin added Health New Zealand was offering support to the family of the person who had died and the death had also been referred to the Coroner.<\/p>\n
‘Health NZ assures me’ family will get answers \u2013 Health Minister<\/p>\n
In a statement this afternoon, Brown said he had spoken with Health New Zealand, who “will carry out a rapid clinical review” to establish what has happened.<\/p>\n
“The individual’s family will rightly want answers, and Health New Zealand has assured me they will get them.”<\/p>\n
Brown said he would not comment on the specific circumstances of the incident out of respect for the family and so the review could “do its work properly”.<\/p>\n
“I respectfully ask others to do the same,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I have asked to be kept closely informed of the rapid clinical review’s findings, and I have been clear that the family must be supported and kept fully informed every step of the way.<\/p>\n
“My priority is ensuring the family and loved ones are supported at this difficult time, while Health New Zealand carries out its rapid clinical review.”<\/p>\n
1News sought more information from Health New Zealand about how long the patient was waiting and where they were found unconscious, but was told: “While the immediate clinical review and the Serious Adverse Event Review are ongoing we are not in a position to confirm further details.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health Minister Simeon Brown says his heart goes out to the family and loved ones of a person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9001,42,134,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-501994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-hamilton-waikato","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501994","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=501994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}