The Southern District Health Board is preparing for an influx of Christchurch patients after Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake.
All elective surgeries at Dunedin and Southland hospitals had been postponed until further notice in an effort to free operating theatres and bed capacity, SDHB incident controller (Canterbury Earthquake) Leanne Samuel said yesterday.
"We are on standby to assist in any way we can."
Acute patients and outpatient activity will continue as normal, but the public are asked to use the Emergency Department only in the event of an emergency.
Members of the public are urged to contact their local GP, Urgent Doctors or Student Health for non-emergency care.
Asked how many patients were expected in Dunedin, she replied "many", including those requiring urgent surgery, trauma cases, and elderly care with 50 spare beds available.
Yesterday afternoon, eight patients - including babies and adults - were transferred from Christchurch to Dunedin by air.
Yesterday morning, one patient was transferred to the Invercargill neonatal intensive care unit, and that number was "likely to grow" in order to increase Dunedin's capacity.
Private hospitals had offered their assistance, she said.
Christchurch patients would be transported to Dunedin in the first instance, and overflows were likely to be sent to other areas.
Injured children would be transferred to Auckland's Starship Hospital.
SDHB staffing numbers were adequate and off-duty staff were offering to work.
"The challenge will be ongoing," she said.
The SDHB was working with the Wellington-based National Health Co-ordination Centre and had taken control of co-ordinating all South Island DHB activity in support of Canterbury DHB.
As a result, patients from other South Island DHBs who normally would have received operations in Christchurch would be transferred to Dunedin.
Health Minister Tony Ryall said the entire health service, both public and private, was pulling together to support Canterbury after the earthquake.
