Dr John Chambers was speaking to the Otago Daily Times about the state of the ED in the wake of coverage of its recently poor processing times for patients.
"There’s always unconscious bias that the ED’s actually a hellhole.
"And it’s not true. None of it’s true."
Dr Chambers acknowledged the recent "below milestone" performance of the ED, with only 58.1% of patients admitted, discharged or transferred from Dunedin’s emergency department within six hours in June.
For a while, the "six-hour target" became so much of a standard it was printed on the noticeboards, and even in the Otago Daily Times.
The lack of attendant funding meant it was never going to last, Dr Chambers said.
Targets were reintroduced by the National government in 2023, but Dr Chambers said they were spaced out so far — EDs have to process 95% of patients under six hours by 2030 — they simply could not be met.
Health systems specialist Prof Robin Gauld, who also has a position at the Otago Medical School as an honorary professor, said the government’s present "incoherence" was also to blame.
‘We might hear [Health Minister] Simeon Brown saying, ‘well, we’re seeking to fix things’. But it’s chaotic because between governments and within government cycles there’s just ongoing change within the health system.
Underfunding emergency services led to all sorts issues in the greater hospital chain, Prof Gauld said.
