Stephen Forbes/Stuff Counties Manukau Health announced this week that Middlemore Hospital's emergency department had reached near capacity levels due to patients seeking treatment for non-urgent conditions. Staff shortages, overcrowding and poor access to GPs is to blame for a plea by Middlemore Hospital for non-urgent patients to avoid its emergency department, a nurses college says. And while the pressure-cooker situation at the south Auckland hospital is a major concern, the College of Emergency Nurses NZ chair Sandy Richardson said it’s part of a bigger, nationwide problem. The group is part of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) union.