Auckland City Hospital's newly expanded and upgraded adult emergency department opened its doors to patients on Thursday, with a new triage area, added waiting areas, and additional consult rooms.
The upgrade construction cost about $9 million, taking about a year to complete, and now had a total ground floor area of 600 square metres - which was double that of the old ED, according to Health New Zealand's (HNZ) northern area head of infrastructure Chris Cardwell.
Health minister Simeon Brown opened the new ED in a ribbon cutting ceremony alongside representatives from HNZ, Ngati Whatua, doctors and nurses.
"Prior to expansion, Auckland City Hospital's ED was cramped and outdated, with no additional space to create new rooms
"Lack of clinical space, and a waiting area that was too small to accommodate the high volumes of patients, was contributing to an environment that was not optimal for those needing emergency care," Brown said.
Brown said a fit-for-purpose ED was essential for any hospital, particularly a high demand ED like Auckland City Hospital's - which saw about 80,000 patients a year.
"The upgraded ED will feature a new reception, waiting area, clinical triage, consult rooms, and staff base, as well as improved designated drop off and parking areas and a new ambulance entry, this includes improved access to the adjacent Starship Children's ED," he said.
The service clinical director for adult ED, Mark Fredrickson, said the new space would make a big difference for staff and patients, from both a safety and healthcare perspective.
"If you saw our previous waiting room that we'd had, it was a very compact, overcrowded area which creates overcapacity.
"A lot of poor interactions between patients and our staff, and just not a very pleasant and safe environment for staff to be in," he said.
Fredrickson said he was hoping the new space would reduce the amount of patients being stuck in ED.
He said while the upgraded space may not fix all the issues, he expected it would improve things in a challenging healthcare system.
When asked whether the hospital will get additional staffing for the ED, Fredrickson said that was yet to be determined.
"We're working with Health New Zealand to get more staff over time, kind of, we need to embed our processes in, to see how much efficiency gain do we get from it, and if we need more staff, we're going to ask for more staff," he said.
According to HNZ's second quarter performance report for 2024/2025, which included October to December, 2024 last year, 72.1 percent of patients at EDs across the country were being seen within six hours.
The report showed that for the Auckland central area, covering Auckland City Hospital, Starship Children's Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre, 68.4 percent patients at ED were seen within that timeframe.
The government's target was for 95 percent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an ED within six hours by 2030.
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