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Auckland hospitals overloaded: Patients waiting in corridors as demand skyrockets 5 May, 2021 09:19 PM 6 minutes to read Doctors reported patients being left in corridors and ambulances queuing outside EDs. Photo / File Emma Russell is a health reporter for the New Zealand Heraldemma.russell@nzherald.co.nz Sick and injured patients are being left in hospital corridors and ambulances are queuing outside Auckland emergency departments as demand continues to skyrocket. Read More Mothers with high-risk pregnancies have occasionally been transferred out of the Auckland area to give birth, because...

Population growth, combined with changes in care and treatment for critically sick and injured children and the growing complexity of cases, means Starship’s PICU is under “ever-increasing pressure”, Beca said. An expansion plan is set to get underway later this year, starting with the addition of 10 new intensive care beds before winter 2022, lifting capacity by 45 per cent. Abigail Dougherty/Stuff There are about 1200 admissions to Starship’s paediatric intensive care unit each year, but just 22 beds. (File photo) Additional whānau and staff support spaces and a new medical day ...

New Zealand’s only intensive care unit for children has hit peak capacity, with staff working overtime and non-emergency surgeries for the country's youngest patients being delayed. To help meet demand there are plans in motion for a total $40 million expansion of the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) that would see 10 new beds built in time for next year’s winter, if it can secure the current $8 million funding shortfall. Meanwhile, unit staff are working hard to service the health needs of the 1.25 million aged 16 or younger, with just 22 beds. PICU doctor John Beca says for those i...