Overflowing emergency departments 'a perfect storm' - emergency medicine expert

Dr John Bonning, spokesman for the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, stated that hospitals are overflowing, and emergency departments are overcrowded.

Our winter illnesses, respiratory viruses that we have not come into contact within a couple of years, and the tail-end of Covid are all colliding at once. "We've kind of got a perfect storm."

"Staff burnout, staff resignations, and staff absences due to winter illness" were also included in this list. That's what Dr. Bonning said was causing overcrowded hospitals and emergency rooms.

Three of the 33 influenza patients at Hawke's Bay Hospital are pregnant women, and one is in intensive care. A sharp increase in the number of hospitalizations has occurred since Monday.

Dr. Bonning said that some patients with influenza A and B are being admitted to the hospital, but the volume is nowhere near as high as with Covid-19. A few people who haven't been exposed to this flu virus for a few years are going to get sicker than they have in the past because they've been exposed to it recently. "Relatively sick young people."

Dr. Bonning recommended that anyone who was in a high-risk patient population or who works in the healthcare industry get vaccinated against the flu. Those who are present are "quite short of breath" and have "very fast pulse rates," according to the statement.

Antiviral drugs failed miserably in the fight against influenza, so doctors turned to vaccinations to help people build up their natural immunity.

He suggested that wearing a mask and staying home if you're feeling under the weather could help reduce the spread of influenza. Free flu shots for everyone could be a good idea, but it's important to do the math first before making any decisions about how to spend health care dollars. He said that the current level of stress in hospitals was foreseeable.

We have had to realign emergency departments into hot and cold zones, and hospitals are testing everyone, but this has been coming for the last decade or more, and you know these numbers were entirely predictable. The stress and strain that hospitals are currently under is not due to Covid. Covid is a little bit of additional pressure.

Measles and meningitis vaccination rates have decreased in recent years, according to Dr. Bonning.

At least 83 people, most of them children, died as a result of the outbreak in Samoa because of the devastation that low measles vaccination rates can cause, according to him

According to Dr. Bonning, increasing vaccination rates in New Zealand is critical.