Canterbury DHB CEO Update Monday 2 May 2022

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CEO UPDATE 2 May 2022 | 2 Haratua 2022

High demand for health services and we’re not into winter yet Last weekend was a busy one for Christchurch Hospital and the Emergency Department (ED) and we had to put a call out to the public to remind them to save ED for emergencies. When ED is extremely busy people are encouraged to visit one of the Urgent Care centres in Canterbury, or phone Healthline on 0800 611 116 for free health advice after hours. If people come to ED with something that could be treated by a GP or with advice from a pharmacist, they may be advised of alternative options. People with nonemergency conditions will experience an extremely long wait to be seen in ED as we need to triage everyone presenting to ensure those in the greatest need, with life-threatening conditions are seen first. Sadly, over the weekend we had several trauma cases present within a very short period and it’s a credit to our ED, surgical and wider Christchurch Hospital teams who were working at capacity for an extended period of time. I want to acknowledge the additional pressure this added to those who were on deck over the weekend. Thank you for keeping calm and making the best use of the resources available to you to prioritise care to those most in need.

We currently have 83 people in our hospitals with COVID-19. Twenty-four people are being cared for in our dedicated COVID-19 ward, with COVID-19 their primary diagnosis. The remainder have been admitted to our facilities for a range of other conditions and their COVID-19 status is secondary. This indicates a high level of COVID-19 is still circulating in our community, and despite peaking some weeks ago, it’s so important to keep up all the protective public health habits. We have more inpatients with COVID-19 today than we did at the peak of the outbreak. Case numbers are not dropping away as quickly as we originally predicted, and we envisage this situation will continue for some time. At the time of writing (mid-Monday morning) Christchurch Hospital is at 109% capacity, so the pressure on our system remains. We still have more than 180 staff away either with COVID-19 or isolating as they are a household contact.

In this issue › Regulars – Kōrero ai... pg 5-6

› Tomorrow (May 3) is World Asthma Day.... pg 10

› Living our values – Lauren Wood... pg 7

› One minute with… Kirsty Gildea, Expert Occupational Therapist, Christchurch Emergency Department... pg 11

› World Hand Hygiene Day 2022 - ‘Unite for safety: clean your hands’... pg 8

› Notices – Pānui... pg 12-16

› Pandemic heroes... pg 9

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