15 December 2021
Scout Barbour-Evans
By email to: [FYI request #17182 email]
Dear Scout
Re:
Official Information Act request – Patient Transfers out of Auckland due to the current
COVID outbreak
Thank you for your Official Information Act request transferred from the Ministry of Health to the
Northern Region DHBs on 27 October 2021:
1. How many patients have been transported from Auckland to other DHBs to receive
emergent care unable to be provided otherwise?
2. Of those patients, can you please provide a breakdown of the DHBs these patients have
been sent to?
3. Of those patients, can you please provide a breakdown of the departmental/medical area
those patients are needing transportation for? Eg. NICU, surgical, medical etc.
Response to Qs 1,2 &3 I am responding on behalf of the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre (NRHCC), the COVID-
19 response and vaccination team set up by the Northland, Waitematā, Auckland, and Counties
Manukau DHBs.
As you will be aware the Northern region encompassing Northland, Waitematā, Auckland and
Counties Manukau DHBs have been particularly impacted by the August 2021 COVID-19 Delta
outbreak, with an increased demand on hospital and specialist services.
As part of our Northern region response to this outbreak we have established regular communication
with DHB col eagues across the country and the Ministry of Health through a range of forums, to
ensure there is ongoing and timely access to highly specialised clinical services provided by DHBs
within the Northern region for both regional and national populations.
The processes in place regionally and nationally to support timely access to acute and complex care
during the COVID-19 outbreak are consistent with historical and established practices whereby DHBs
work col ectively at a regional or national level to respond to instances of peak demand or reduced
capacity, such as during the Waikato DHB cyber-attack and the Whakaari/White Island eruption.
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Since the start of the August COVID-19 outbreak there have been two occasions where Auckland DHB
and Counties Manukau DHBs have had to implement alternative arrangements to care for patients
who would ordinarily have received their tertiary level of care within the Auckland region.
1. Acute spinal cord impairment services
Counties Manukau DHB and Canterbury DHB are the two national providers of acute traumatic and
non-traumatic spinal cord injury services for the New Zealand population. Counties Manukau DHB
provides this service for the populations of the Northern region DHBs and the Midland region DHBs -
Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Lakes and Tairawhiti.
For a period of approximately one month from the last week of August to the last week of September,
an arrangement was put in place to divert patients from the Midland region DHBs who required
admission for the management of their acute spinal injuries from Counties Manukau DHB to Waikato
and Canterbury DHB.
During this four-week period, this arrangement resulted in two patients being sent to Canterbury DHB
and one to Waikato DHB rather than to Counties Manukau DHB for the acute management of their
spinal injuries.
This reduced demand on ICU capacity at Counties Manukau DHB at a time of increasing COVID-19-
related ICU demand.
2. Level 3 Neonatal Services
During the first week of October, a COVID-19 exposure event within the Auckland DHB neonatal unit
led to some nursing staff being stood down in accordance with public health guidance. This impacted
on the level 3 neonatal capacity available at Auckland DHB.
The Northern region DHBs work together through an established neonatal network to coordinate
regional neonatal capacity at times of increased demand. The Northern region also works with
obstetric and neonatal col eagues nationally when peak demand requires the transfer of women or
babies between obstetric and neonatal units across the country who have capacity. The need to
transfer women out of the Northern region due to neonatal capacity constraints occurs on an
occasional and infrequent basis.
Seven women were transferred to obstetric services outside of the Auckland region to give birth, to
enable their babies to subsequently receive neonatal care in DHB hospitals that had level 3
neonatal capacity. Of these seven women, four were sent to Waikato DHB, two were sent to Capital
and Coast DHB and one was sent to Southern DHB.
All women and their babies were returned to their DHB-of-domicile as soon as capacity was available
and the babies were clinically stable enough to be able to be transported.
I trust that this information is helpful.
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You are entitled to seek a review of the response by the Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Official
Information Act. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, or an edited version of this response, may be published on the
Auckland DHB website.
Yours sincerely,
Ailsa Claire, OBE
Chief Executive
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