plight of hospital's mental health patients
Mental health patients are sometimes stranded for days in North Shore Hospital's emergency department waiting for a bed on a ward, and other patients are not on heart monitors when they should be.
The situation has prompted frustrated ED health staff, led by nurses, to make a formal health and safety complaint about the hospital on 26 October.
They said the ED was at "critical overload" and unsafe, warning that patients and staff could be harmed if it was not urgently fixed.
Their report outlined several key areas of risk.
Patients were waiting in ambulance bays because the emergency department was too full - but the three bays were also overflowing.
That meant up to 10 patients were waiting without assessment or proper oversight, some requiring cardiac monitoring, often with one nurse trying to look after them all.
Link to article: Staff make formal complaint about plight of hospital's mental health patients | RNZ News
