Nick Mills: I will stop talking about ED failures when they stop happening

Publish Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2026, 12:40pm

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More than two dozen staff have been affected by a gastro outbreak at Wellington Hospital's emergency department. Photo / Reece Baker, RNZ

EDITORIAL: I want to start off with some honesty this morning - when I read this story this morning, I had two choices.

I could read it, shake my head, get angry to myself and move on. I could say,

"Well, there you go. Another emergency department horror story. Another report. Another apology. Another promise it'll never happen again."

Because, sadly, we've been talking about this stuff for years.

Or I could do what I think we have to do, and that's keep talking about it.

I will speak about these stories as many times as it takes.

Because if we stop talking about it, we start accepting it. And I refuse to accept it.

Think about this for a second. A 55-year-old man walks into Wellington Hospital with burning chest pain.

The pain is radiating into his left shoulder.

He's got a family history of heart attacks.

He's got elevated blood pressure. Every alarm bell should have been ringing. We've all seen the TV ads, we understand them.

Instead, he waits. And he waits some more

Not 30 minutes. Not an hour.

He waits four and a half hours before he's seen by a doctor.

More than five hours after arriving, an ECG finally confirms he's having a heart attack.

Five hours.

The Health and Disability Commissioner has now ruled that Health New Zealand failed to provide an appropriate standard of care. They didn't need AI for that did they?

The investigation found he should have been treated as a higher priority and should have had an ECG during his initial assessment.

This is not earthmoving, is it?

On that night the emergency department was running at 200 percent occupancy and was ten nurses short.

Now look, I know the staff in our emergency departments work incredibly hard.

I know they're under pressure. I know there are hundreds of stories where nurses and doctors perform miracles every single day. This is not about blaming the people on the floor.

This is about a system that keeps putting good people into impossible situations.

Because here's what really gets me. That man could have been me.

He could have been your husband, your wife, your dad, your mum, your brother, your sister or your best mate.

None of us thinks we're going to be the one sitting in an emergency department waiting for someone to realise we're having a heart attack.

And that's what scares me.

I'm also tired of hearing what they're going to do. We're always promised reviews, action plans, better training, audits and future improvements. Fine.

But at some point the promises have to be results.

Because this isn't about politics.

It isn't about headlines.

It's about whether, when the worst day of your life arrives, a health system, the New Zealand health system, is there when you need it.

And right now, I don't think that's a question any of us would be comfortable asking.

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