Emergency Department (ED) nurses across Auckland say this winter has been the busiest they have ever experienced, as hospitals struggle to keep up with a surge in patients
Nurses report that waiting rooms are packed around the clock, with some patients facing hours-long delays before being seen. A combination of flu cases, COVID-19 infections, and winter-related illnesses such as respiratory conditions has put enormous pressure on already stretched services. Staff shortages have further compounded the situation, leaving frontline workers exhausted.
One senior nurse described the conditions as “relentless,” noting that the patient flow has shown no sign of slowing down since the start of winter. Many patients arriving at EDs are elderly or have underlying health issues, requiring longer and more complex care. This has created a bottleneck, with patients often waiting for ward beds to become available.
Health experts say the demand highlights the need for more investment in both emergency and primary care. They stress that many people end up in emergency departments because they cannot access timely GP appointments, further increasing ED workloads.
Despite the pressure, nurses continue to provide critical care, but they warn the system is close to breaking point. Calls have been made for urgent action to support frontline staff, including additional resources, recruitment drives, and stronger community care initiatives to ease hospital demand.
As winter continues, Auckland’s ED nurses say they are bracing for even tougher weeks ahead.
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New BEGINNERS LINEDANCING CLASS
Epsom Methodist church
12 pah Rd GREENWOODS cnr. Epsom
Monday 9th February 7pm - 9pm
Tuesday 10th February 10am -11am
Just turn up on the day
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
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