\u201cWhere possible, we ask patients to limit this to one support person. This small step can make a significant difference by reducing crowding in our waiting areas and helping protect patients, visitors and staff from illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The request follows a spike in influenza and whooping cough across Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n
On one day last week, Hawke\u2019s Bay Hospital\u2019s emergency department recorded 225 patient presentations \u2013 well above its winter daily average of 158.<\/p>\n
The pressure followed already elevated demand earlier in winter.<\/p>\n
Figures obtained by Hawke\u2019s Bay Today under the Official Information Act showed the emergency department recorded an average of 157 presentations a day during June, compared with about 150 a day over the previous 12 months.<\/p>\n
At the time, Health New Zealand described it as a \u201csustained high level of utilisation\u201d above the baseline number of patients.<\/p>\n
The department has 23 treatment spaces.<\/p>\n
Health New Zealand has said the emergency department does not have a fixed capacity, and people who require urgent care should still attend.<\/p>\n
The latest winter illness wave has been felt beyond the hospital.<\/p>\n
Schools across Hawke\u2019s Bay have reported unusually high numbers of students and staff off sick, while some medical centres have asked people with respiratory symptoms to wear masks.<\/p>\n
Napier\u2019s overnight urgent health service was also forced to close overnight five times in one week because of staff illness.<\/p>\n
Health New Zealand was encouraging people experiencing cold, flu or Covid symptoms not to visit the hospital unless they need medical care themselves.<\/p>\n
Those with non-urgent health concerns can consider their GP, community pharmacies or the free Healthline service on 0800 611 116.<\/p>\n
Anyone needing emergency care should attend the emergency department without delay or call 111.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhere possible, we ask patients to limit this to one support person. This small step can make a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[806,27518,31036,1561,3021,803,8607,1976,134,527,2241,28292,13347,5511,50371,111,139,69,90,193,6293,384,4056,31531,21411,1321,1886,2846,61,23644,102,80],"class_list":["post-575635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-as","tag-asking","tag-asks","tag-bay","tag-bring","tag-continue","tag-covid","tag-hawkes","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-illnesses","tag-influenza","tag-just","tag-limit","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-other","tag-patients","tag-people","tag-person","tag-pile","tag-pressure","tag-services","tag-support","tag-them","tag-to","tag-winter","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575635","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=575635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}