A fortnight ago, driven to despair by long waiting lists, inadequate staffing levels and inefficient working conditions, the departmental health and safety representative lodged a provisional improvement notice (Pin) with the SDHB.
A Pin is a statutory device under the Health and Safety at Work Act which requires a workplace to display the notice and take steps within eight days to address the safety issues raised or face possible further action.
That eight-day period has expired, and the Pin has been referred to WorkSafe for further action.
"The concerns were centred on staffing issues, patient triage and wait times," a WorkSafe spokeswoman said.
"We are working with the DHB to review this Pin and ascertain reasonably practicable steps and appropriate timeframes for the improvements."
Since the Pin was lodged, the board has met several times with ED staff to consider how to better resource that part of the hospital, and is trying to rearrange rosters so that it will have more staff available.
Both nurses’ and senior doctors’ unions endorsed the Pin being lodged, and said patients often waited all night without being seen.
Under the former health targets system all emergency departments were meant to hit a 95% level for a patient to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an emergency department within six hours.
In the most recently released data the SDHB managed 80.6%, which ranked it 16th out of the 20 DHBs.
On one day last month Dunedin Hospital’s six hour target achievement figure slumped to 47%, understood to be a record low for the department.
Nationwide the average six hour performance was 83.6%, and just two DHBs achieved the 95% target.
