Oliver Alexander, who has been an ED nurse at Dunedin Hospital for five years, spoke to the Otago Daily Times at yesterday’s nurses’ strike.
"I’ve already seen how things are getting worse in ED, how the waits are getting longer, how the department’s getting fuller.
"The conditions are often unbearable for staff and patients."
Poor resources meant difficult decisions had to be made, he said.
"When there are simply not enough nurses on the floor, people get missed, there are jobs that don’t get done.
"You have to prioritise between taking someone to the toilet or giving some urgent medication to someone else. We should not be having to make these decisions, but here we are."
Recent leaked "daily" data suggested Dunedin Hospital had one of the worst-performing EDs in the country, with only 35% to 48% of patients processed within six hours during August.
Dozens of people shared that their wait times were even longer than that.
One patient, Geoff Logie, said he was taken to the hospital on Saturday with his bed placed in a corridor at 10.30pm. He was finally seen by an ED doctor by 7.30am yesterday.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) has dismissed the leaked data as "unvalidated" and "variable", and pointed to the national HNZ figures, which showed the Southern region processed 75% of patients within six hours in the past quarter — although it could not give data for Dunedin Hospital.
Mr Alexander said the leaked data painted a more accurate picture of the situation.
"When people do make it into the hospital, sometimes they’re left in a bed in the corridor because there’s not enough room for them in the bedrooms.
"Just anyone to be in that kind of situation is terrible for them and their families as well, and some people have been stuck in an emergency department for over 24 hours."
The government has a target of 95% of ED patients processed within six hours by 2030, and Mr Alexander said it was "just not happening".
In the past 48 hours, the ODT has been inundated with dozens of emails featuring people’s shared horror stories about the wait for ED.
They range from a person waiting 15 hours to see a doctor at Dunedin Hospital’s emergency department with her seriously ill 14-year-old daughter to someone spending more than 25 hours in the department over two days treating a swollen leg and possible blood clot.
One mother, who declined to be named, said her daughter had to wait 12 hours over two separate days after a GP diagnosed her with a possibly ruptured appendix.
"There was, like, sod-all staff there. It was crazy," she said.
Mr Alexander said there were all sorts of issues with the ED, including a shortage of hospital beds, relative lack of staff and general leadership issues.
"We need more funding and support into public health, supporting GPs so that people can actually get appointments when they need it, so they can prevent people getting sick in the first place."
More "on the ground" staff were needed, he said.
"We need more doctors, we need more nurses, so that we do have enough resources on the ground to give people the support they need. So we can make sure people aren’t forgotten about."
Health Minister Simeon Brown said too many New Zealanders were waiting far too long in the emergency departments.
"I expect Health New Zealand to lift its performance.
"We are already seeing progress on the shorter stays in ED target, including in the Southern district."
In the latest quarterly results for the Southern district, 75% of patients were admitted, discharged, or transferred within six hours — above the 2024-25 milestone of 74%, he said.
"There is still more work to do to reach the 2030 goal."
