Rapid review after Waikato Hospital ED death to be done by end of the week

Te Whatu Ora expects an urgent clinical review into a death in the emergency department of Waikato Hospital to be done by the end of the week.

The patient presented to ED on Monday night and was triaged, but was later found unconscious and efforts to resuscitate them were unsuccessful.

The hospital's medical director Ian Martin said it was in touch with the family, and continued to offer them support.

Health Minister Simeon Brown would not confirm reports the person was found in a bathroom after a nine-hour wait.

A clinical review is underway to identify immediate improvements, and another will look at long-term lessons for staff over the next two months.

Health New Zealand said on Wednesday wait times at the hospital's emergency department aren't where they needed to be.

The agency's executive regional director for Midland Cath Cronin told Morning Report 66 percent of ED patients were being seen within the six-hour threshold.

"It's never acceptable for anyone to wait. Our goal is to get every patient moved to their destination by six hours. But we know that people at times are waiting longer than we want. So we're working to improve that but we know that that happens.

Cronin said staffing levels for the hospital's emergency department were reviewed daily but she would not be drawn on the hositpal's ED was under-staffed, which the Nurses Organisation has claimed.

Tough on staff - union

The nurses union said the death will also be tough on staff who will be thinking about all the things they could have done, but didn't have time or resources for.

Nurses Organisation president Anne Daniels said Waikato Hospital has been over capacity for the past four months and when departments were this busy, people fell through the cracks.

She said nurses took situations like this week's incident home with them.

It took a long time to wind down after a shift like that.

It was also hard for staff to see people waiting long hours in ED.

She said the problem was being framed as a winter one but in reality EDs were under-staffed and overcrowded year-round.

Daniels said the research showed the fewer staff on shift, the more likely avoidable patient harm or death becomes.