Middlemore ED resus rooms get first upgrade in 23 years

“These rooms are dealing with the sickest patients in the hospital and in New Zealand”

A project to upgrade Middlemore Hospital’s ED resuscitation rooms is their first major revamp in 23 years.

The first of the revamped rooms is in service and cost $350,000, while work on the department’s five other trauma rooms is expected to start soon.

Middlemore Hospital emergency medical consultant Andrew Brainard says the refurbishments are welcome and it’s the first time they have been upgraded since they opened in 2000.

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Resus, or trauma rooms, are often the first place patients with life-threatening illness and injuries go when they enter an ED. Access to the right staff, equipment, drugs and fluids is crucial.

Trauma rooms handle many of the most difficult ED cases, from amputated limbs and heart attacks to any number of other severe medical events, which Dr Brainard deals with daily.

“These rooms are dealing with the sickest patients in the hospital and in New Zealand,” he says.

As part of the revamp, the rooms will be able to operate as negative pressure rooms in case of an outbreak of another new airborne virus like COVID-19.

Dr Brainard says the new facilities will help improve “crowd control” and allow staff to get people in and out of the department as quickly as possible.

“Middlemore does a fantastic job of taking care of these triage patients. No matter how badly the rest of the hospital is [faring], we can always find a way to fit someone into the ED with one of these rooms.”

But, he says, despite the upgrades, Middlemore Hospital always needs more support. Dr Brainard says the hospital is regularly short of bed space in its adjoining wards to help move more patients out of the under-pressure ED.

In March a leaked Te Whatu Ora staff survey showed only 19 per cent of respondents from Middlemore Hospital’s ED believed they had the resources (including time, people, budget, facilities and equipment) needed to perform their jobs.
The Ngātahitanga Pulse Survey was conducted nationwide in December and the results were released to staff in February. More than 1900 staff from Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau responded.

Te Whatu Ora has been approached for comment.