The number of elevators in the new Bay of Islands Hospital building has been reduced from two to one as a cost-saving measure, staff said.
Photograph: RNZ/Peter de Graaf

Health NZ has been accused of misleading the public by claiming no patients needed to be transferred to other hospitals when the single lift at Bay of Islands Hospital in Kawakawa broke down.

Three healthcare workers contacted RNZ to dispute a statement made last week. Health NZ says no one has been transferred due to failure.

The statement said some patients were admitted to Whangārei Hospital but for clinical reasons unrelated to lift-related issues.

Emergency medicine consultant and ASMS Northland chapter president Dr. Eugene Fayerberg said he knows of at least two patients who had to be transferred last week because the elevator was not working. ASMS, or the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, is an association that represents senior doctors and dentists.

The elevator stopped working on Saturday, November 2nd and was repaired a week later on Friday, November 9th.

It broke down again on Monday this week.

Fayerberg said Health NZ’s statement that no patients were transferred due to the malfunction was incorrect.

“Unfortunately, this is misinformation. I was on shift there (in Kawakawa) and there were discussions about transferring several patients. One of them was eventually transferred because he could not lift this patient to the floor due to health problems. He had shortness of breath,” he said.

“That weekend, a colleague of mine saw another patient and that patient also had to be transferred because the elevator wasn’t working.”

Fayerberg also knew about a close call that took place Friday just after the elevator was repaired.

“There was a very sick patient and they needed to be taken to the emergency room. Luckily the elevator was working. I think it was two and a half, three hours or so since the elevator started working. It would have been really difficult. Get this patient down the stairs because the elevator was working at the time, so everything was as it should be.” “The patient was immediately transferred to the resuscitation room and directed there. However, the elevator was not available, which could have been a really bad outcome.”

Fayerberg said staff were left feeling disappointed and disrespected by Health NZ’s claims about the lift not acknowledging the difficult conditions they worked under.

He said no one expected Health NZ to be able to fix every problem immediately.

“But our expectation is to be frank and honest about the issues at hand, to inform people about what the issues are, and to work with people on the ground who are constantly under pressure from these issues to find solutions.”

Fayerberg contacted management at Health NZ Te Tai Tokerau (Northland) about his concerns and they told him they were equally disappointed.

They told him that funding had been requested for a second elevator and other improvements to make it easier for patients to climb stairs as a short-term solution.

Fayerberg called on Health Commissioner Lester Levy and Health Minister Shane Reti to listen to the pleas of Northland health care workers and administrators and avoid a potentially bad outcome for patients.

He said that the new hospital building, which has an accident and health department on the ground floor and a 20-bed ward on the upper floor, was designed with two elevators in 2018.

At one point, to save money, the design was changed and the space the elevator shaft would have occupied was converted into a small staff room.

Building a hospital with a single elevator struck him as a “shocking and shortsighted” idea.

“But the more shocking part was that the staff at the hospital told them, ‘We need a second elevator. What if one breaks?’ “So the management needs to be honest about this and say that the decision was not correct and we need to fix it.”

Fayerberg is normally based in Whangārei but sometimes also covers shifts at Kawakawa or Kaitāia hospitals.

Two other staff members, who said they could not be named due to possible work repercussions, told RNZ that “many” patients had been transferred to Whangārei because of last week’s crisis.

RNZ was told another patient with breathing problems was transferred to Whangārei on Tuesday this week due to the latest malfunction.

Staff also told RNZ they felt “deeply uncomfortable” about sick patients being handled or asked to walk up and down stairs.

Health NZ and Shane Reti’s office have been contacted for comment.