Deaths and adverse events after emergency room discharge
Aaron Goodwin made this Official Information request to Health New Zealand
Health New Zealand did not have the information requested.
From: Aaron Goodwin
Dear Health New Zealand,
Please note that I am only requesting figures and not personally identifiable information.
Please provide figures for the following occurrences over a 5 year time period:
1. Patients presenting to a public hospital emergency department that were not admitted to a ward, and whom subsequently died of an ailment related to their presenting complaint within a 24 hour period after discharge
2. The same as request 1, but for patients who were traiged and later decided to leave the waiting room before being evaluated in the emergency department
3. Patients who had concerns relating to chest pain whose patient notes show were dismissed as having anxiety or dismissed as experiencing somatic manifestations who within the next week had an adverse cardiac incident or died as a consequence of cardiac issues
Context: The third example relates to something that happened to me, (which I am happy to declare here fully informed that this request is made public) having been dismissed as anxious and then later found to have had elevated levels of troponin - resulting in a cardiology ward stay. I am interested to know how frequently this type of medical negligence/malpractice is occurring.
Yours faithfully,
Aaron Goodwin
From: hnzOIA
Health New Zealand
Tēnā koe,
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Ngā mihi
Te Whatu Ora, Health NZ.
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From: hnzOIA
Health New Zealand
Kia ora Aaron,
Thank you for your request for information. Please find attached our
response to your request.
If you have any questions, please get in touch at
[1][Health New Zealand request email].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a
complaint to the Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available
at [2]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi,
Te Whatu Ora Ministerial Team
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Aaron Goodwin left an annotation ()
Rationale for OIA:
I have noticed a concerning amount of news coverage reporting the deaths or worsening health of patients who were dismissed or couldn't stand the long waits at our emergency departments. After going through a similar situation myself, I am now trying to ascertain whether or not what I and others have experienced is a growing trend of medical negligence, or just an increase in media reporting over this issue.
Link to this