West Coast District Health Board
Te Poari Hauora a Rohe o Tai Poutini
Corporate Office
Telephone 03 769-7400
High Street, Greymouth 7840
Fax 03 769-7791
30 October 2020
D Griffiths
Email: [FYI request #13948 email];
Dear D Griffiths
RE Official information request WCDHB 9484
I refer to your email dated 10 October 2020 to the Ministry Health and which they subsequently transferred to us
on 19 October 2020, requesting the following information under the Official Information Act from West Coast
DHB. Specifically:
1. What is the maximum bed occupancy in ICU (intensive care units) across all hospitals in New Zealand, in
total.
West Coast DHB does not have any ICU beds, instead we operate four Critical Care Unit beds; which are all
located at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth. During the period 15 March 2020 to 1 October 2020, these
beds were occupied to the maximum of four beds in use on four occasions; on 19 August, 20 August, 25 August
and 19 September 2020.
2. What has been the bed occupancy rate (% of beds occupied in ICUs) by week / month (which ever time
period data is available) across the same hospitals in question 1 above, for the period 15th March 2020 to
1st October 2020.
The % of beds occupied of our four Critical Care Unit beds each month for the period 15th March 2020 to 1st
October 2020 was as follows:
15- 31 March 2020 – 37.5%
1 – 30 April 2020 – 24.2%
1 – 31 May 2020 – 30.6%
1 – 30 June 2020 – 30.0%
1 – 31 July 2020 – 36.3%
1 – 31 August 2020 – 33.1%
1 – 30 September 2020 – 40.8%
1 October 2020 – 25.0%
I trust this satisfies your interest in this matter.
Please note that this response, or an edited version of this response, may be published on the West Coast DHB
website after your receipt of this response.
Yours sincerely
Ralph La Salle
Acting Executive Director
Planning, Funding & Decision Support
