94 hours in A&E!

The Herald reports:

A mental health patient at Auckland Hospital was made to wait 94 hours in the emergency department because there were no beds available in the psychiatric unit, according to a damning internal email obtained by the Weekend Herald.

The nearly four-day delay was “the longest any patient, under ANY service, has ever waited for an inpatient bed in our department”, a senior emergency doctor told hospital executives in an email on March 29, soon after the person was finally admitted to the adult mental health ward.

“Anecdotally, it may be the longest ever stay for a MH [mental health] patient in any New Zealand ED,” the doctor said.

Two other acutely unwell patients were “marooned” in ED at the same time. They waited 58 and 65 hours to be admitted to Te Whetu Tawera, the 58-bed inpatient psychiatric facility, the email said.

Amazingly in 2018 the Government announced $1.9 billion more for mental health funding, but none of it seems to have gone on stuff like extra mental health beds!