Flu surge forces hospitals to cancel elective surgeries
A spike in Influenza A and other respiratory illnesses is forcing hospitals across New Zealand to cancel patients’ elective surgeries.
Middlemore Hospital has been forced to place beds in corridors to meet demand from flu patients, while schools have reported more than 100 absent students daily amid a surge in respiratory illness in recent weeks.
Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ) chair of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Dr Sharon English said a mix of community outbreaks and staffing shortages were creating different pressures for hospitals throughout the country.
Hospitals in the regions were experiencing the most disruption.
English said colleagues at Auckland City Hospital and Christchurch Hospital hadn’t reported any issues with elective surgeries being cancelled, although those at Wairarapa Hospital had seen the backlog on waiting lists grow.
“It’s a very patchy thing that’s going on,” English said.
“This will happen for many years, because when a hospital gets full of medical patients, that blocks a bed for an elect.
“The one thing you can control is your elective surgeries, and not bringing those patients into hospital.”
She said most colleagues she spoke to were faring fine with their electives, but there would be some patients with non-life-threatening conditions who will inevitably face delays to treatment.
“In some ways, the backlog is never cleared, because you’ve always got more demand than what you can actually do.
“For some people, it just pushes them further and further back, because the urgents come in front of them.
The surge in flu-like illnesses is said to be worsening surgery backlogs in some regions. Photo / 123rf
“It’s hugely variable. The waiting list fluctuates a bit and it does catch up, but it will take over the next two or three months probably.”
Despite high levels of illness, English said there had been few elective cancellations across the system as a whole, although the impact was “very hospital specific” and appeared to be worse outside of the main centres.
“It probably is more an issue that some patients aren’t getting their surgery because they’ve been unwell ... with the cold that’s going around.
“Even if they’re coughing two or three weeks later, the anaesthetists will postpone them until they’re fully well, especially if it’s a non-cancer surgery.”
Health NZ has been approached for comment.
In the week ending August 16, 31 respiratory illness outbreaks were recorded – 21 of them were in aged care facilities, eight were in early childhood centres and two in schools.
Influenza was the most common, followed by RSV and SARS-CoV-2.
A nurse at Middlemore Hospital, whom the Herald agreed not to name, said the hospital was receiving so many influenza patients last month that staff were placing more beds than usual in corridors, and an emergency trolley of oxygen was available to patients waiting for a bed.
She said the severity of the sickness didn’t seem markedly different from previous winters, but it was worse for nurses because there were more patients and less capacity.
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