Emergency departments across Aotearoa are facing unprecedented pressure as record demand, increasingly complex patient needs and limited hospital capacity stretch frontline services.
Dr Michael Connelly, Aotearoa New Zealand National Council Chair for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, joins Radio Waatea following a new report examining the growing pressures facing emergency departments.
The report warns the challenge is not simply the number of people arriving at emergency departments, but the increasing complexity of their health needs and difficulties moving patients from emergency care into already stretched hospital wards.
When hospitals operate close to capacity, patients can spend longer waiting in emergency departments for beds, creating flow-on pressure for clinicians, ambulance services and people arriving for urgent treatment.
ACEM says addressing emergency department pressure requires a whole-of-hospital and wider health-system response rather than expecting emergency departments alone to absorb continually increasing demand.
Dr Connelly joins Radio Waatea to unpack what is happening on the frontline, what the pressures mean for patients and health workers, and what needs to change to ensure emergency care remains accessible when people need it most.
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