Dr Richard Sullivan: Health NZ Chief Clinical Officer on the review into the Waikato Hospital's Emergency Department death

Health New Zealand has confirmed Waikato Hospital's Emergency Department was under some strain when a patient died.

A man who couldn't be revived after being found unresponsive last week had been waiting for hours. 

A review's found he had an acute unexpected incident that wouldn't have been prevented by more monitoring. 

Health NZ Clinical Executive National Director Doctor Richard Sullivan says it was a busy day, with two wards closed to new patients because of a bug. 

"The third issue on that particular shift was that they were four doctors down from the 12 they had planned to have on that day, and that was because  of sickness." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the rapid review into the patient who died in
waykuttl Hospital's ED toilet has now been completed. It found
that the death was an acute unexpected incident and even
if the ED waiting room had been monitored more thoroughly,
the death would not have been preventable. Doctor Richard Sullivan's
Health New Zealand's Clinical Executive National Director, Hi, Richard, Hello
the hell are you? I'm very well, thank you? So
what does that mean? An acute unexpected incident?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, I think either you described it quite well in
the preamble, so really a sudden unexpected death and as
you say, the immediate conquer review showed that even had
we monitored more frequently, unfortunately, that wouldn't have changed the
outcome in this case.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Okay, you're not prepared to say anything else say because
the family's asked you not to say anything.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
But can I assume that he has gone in with
something completely unrelated to what has killed him, and then
in the end he's had a massive heart attack.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm not sure we can assume that was the cause
of death, but I think your assumption that he came
up or something and then something else happened as a
fear assumption.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
And can I assume if you were saying it was
unexpected that you'd done his vitals, you hooked him up to.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
The Indeed he did those showed.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Nothing, showed nothing that was going to kill him.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
So when he when he arrived, he was triage and
had some assessments undertaken, and then a few hours later
he had a further set of assessments undertaken, including blood tests,
et cetera. And then sadly, as you say, the special
event happened somehow later.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Can you tell us about the staffing levels?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, I can. So it was a it was a
tough day in Wikata on that day. There's a series
of events that occurred. So firstly, it was a busy day,
and need we get busy days in edd Second was
that there was a particular bacteria in a couple of awards.
It's called vre, and that's a bacteria which is resistant
to quite a lot of antibiotics. And so when that occurs,

(01:55):
we don't have new patients going to those wards until
we've cleaned it thoroughly. That can take several days to
do that, and unfortunately, on that day, two of our
awards were not admitting patients. And then the third issue
on that particular shift was that they were four doctors down,
so they had a doctor's present, but they were four
short from the twelve they had planned to have on

(02:17):
that day, and that was because of sickness. The nursing
numbers weren't bad, they were I think one or two
nurses down from their amount of that shift, and that
led to the increased weight time that the following shift
actually was staffed adequately, so the doctor they had appropriate
doctors and nurses, but it was that particular shift that

(02:37):
was under particular strain.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Now what do you know about this guy, the old
lotto guy getting paid money by you guys after he'd
been charged for drug for gold smuggling.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Now I know nothing. Actually, I heard you messand an introduction,
and I thought, tee, that's something else not across, But
I'm sure I'll become across.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Would you though you a clin you're the clinical Executive
National Director. I feel it's slightly unfair asking you this question.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, not paya for my ear of xpertise.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well listen, thank you all the same, Thanks very much
for your time, Richard, Richard Sullivan Health New Zealand Clinical
Executive National Director. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
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