'The new norm': Christchurch Hospital’s ED treating more patients in corridors

Christchurch Hospital’s emergency department is treating more than three times as many patients in corridors as it was three years ago – with a senior doctor saying it’s become “the new norm”.

Health NZ figures released to Newstalk ZB show 14,582 patients were recorded in corridors in the 2025/26 financial year – up from 3911 in 2022/23.

The amount of time patients spent in corridors has also nearly quintupled – from 6126 hours to more than 29,000.

Around 4000 patients were recorded in corridors in each quarter of the last financial year.

The figures also show self-discharges have more than doubled – to 5183 in the most recent financial year.

Health NZ said Christchurch is experiencing some of the highest levels of demand seen in recent years, as are hospitals around the country.

It said additional spaces may be used, like corridors, to care for patients – but corridors aren’t always used this way.

However, senior ED doctor Dominic Fleischer said having patients in corridors is now routine.

“It is absolutely the norm to have patients in corridors and patients in corridors for hours overnight. [On] Tuesday, I had patients who’d been in the corridors for verging on 24 hours, and not one, not two, but several.”

Fleischer said these are often people who need to be admitted to hospital, but there are simply no beds in the wards.

“And so they stay in the corridors where they get absolutely substandard care.”

“You can’t talk to a patient in the corridor because it’s noisy, it’s not private. So you can’t get a good history from a patient. You can’t examine them like you could in a private cubicle. You can’t do basic tests. You can’t monitor them,” he added.

NZ Nurses Organisation delegate Al Dietschin echoed this – saying patients can’t be cared for with dignity in corridors.

He added it’s clear that people are self-discharging more, after having to wait 12 or more hours in the ED.

“But it’s also happening throughout the hospital, especially in surgical wards from time to time, people get bumped off waiting lists for surgery.”

Dietschin said employing more staff would no doubt help the problem, but substantial workforce or infrastructure planning is also required.

“We see an ageing population that’s becoming more acutely unwell, but we haven’t looked 20 years, 50 years ahead and sort of gone, well, this is where we’re going to be.”

Health NZ’s Canterbury operations director, Hamish Brown, said they recognise that receiving care in the corridor is not an experience wanted for patients, and isn’t an environment staff want to be providing care in.

He added that preparations have been underway since March to improve hospital flow, and enable patients to return home sooner.

“Specifically in Christchurch we have funded three general practices...to provide additional evening and weekend urgent care clinics, provided an additional 750 urgent care telehealth vouchers for people presenting to Christchurch ED during the winter months [and] employed additional clinical staff across key areas.”

But Fleischer said a new after-hours clinic in Rolleston has been a “huge help” – but the rest are small changes.

“We know this time next year we’ll be in an even worse position than we are this time. And so it’d be nice to have some co-ordinated planning to try and make that not happen,” he said.

“The changes have to be monumental. We can’t be talking about small tinkering around the edges. The department needs more doctors, more nurses, more beds.”

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.