Auckland City Hospital — Local services in Waitematā

Whilst indulging in some good natured '"Horse play"with a mate, I ended up stumbling over him and landed badly, head & shoulder first onto a floor consisting of old carpet tiles glued to solid concrete... I tell you all this because it was not something that I thought would result in me going to Auckland City Hospital in a massive amount of pain assuming I had broken my arm at least... Because stupidly I had got myself there instead of tieing up an Ambulance unnecessarily they would not give me pain relief until I'd been seen & I would have to wait... I bought some Nuromol Tablets at the Pharmacy swallowed 4 of the take 2 tablets & Gritted my teeth & waited in agony the pills even after 2 more about an hour just took the edge off the pain.. Long story short 4 hours in I finally get xray'd and back to waiting after another 2 hours i asked how long It would be now... The lady seem genuinely sorry to say being honest it could be another 2 or 3 hours.... That was it , I left... I never go to hospital so wasn't aware that you could wait this long and I was f#&$!¿g appalled to put it mildly. I'd broken my arm before and figured I'd just dig out my sling and sort it myself... I went home and tried to sleep.... Things just got worse, I was on the verge of tears from the pain & started having trouble breathing... My girlfriend said bu&&er this and took me up to the white Cross emergency at Ascot Hospital... On arrival i was informed they had a $20 surcharge & because it was a busy night it may take a while to be seen... Resigned I sat again. 45mins later I was explaining everything to a doctor while he checked the xrays I'd got done at Auckland Hospital... Turns out I hadn't broken my arm at all... No. I'd fractured my right scapula in two places & had completely broken 3 upper Ribs two of which were very close & still at a high likelihood of punctuating my Lung along with a few other contusions and bruises that changed all hues of the rainbow over the preseading months... The Doctor went through everything, pointing it out on the computer image of my xray & advised me on my recovery... A nurse then kindly replaced the simple cloth sling id gotten at Auckland & put me into a very comfortable modern sling, with velcro straps & fasteners, doing all the adjustments to make it support the arm & be comfortable to wear ((for the next 4 to 6 weeks))... I was in & out of there in just over 2 hours with a much superior consultation & with a vastly superior Sling that I'm positive made the weeks in that thing more bearable & probably accelerated my healing... So keep those places in mind when you need emergency care... I'm sure these places exist elsewhere & although you may have to pay $20 you'll be seen sooner & maybe even get a superior form of Doctoring that the NZ Govt. does not deem us lowly citizenry worthy to recieve in the Public Health System... An Absolutely Appalling State...

Went to Auckland A&E on Sunday afternoon but Nurse informed there were only two doctors working during a day shift and that explained the long waiting time… Can you imagine such a big Auckland Hospital at the Emergency department only two doctors are working to serve the Auckland Region people ? Does this even make sense ? Is this the Health Care service provided by New Zealand Government ? The nurses kept asking all patients to take blood test and in order to drag for another two to four hours because they will tell you to wait for the blood test results so doctors can analyse you. It’s a trick for them to delay your waiting time and give them self a breathing room. I’ve been having severe pain for few days, tried some medicines from Chemist Warehouse but it did not help hence I decided to go Hospital for doctor diagnosis & treatment. The nurses only gave me drowsy pills, paracetamols but I’ve been mentioning the pain’s been hiting me nonstop also the medications were all useless to my conditions. I was feeling sleepy and needed a to lie down to rest and suck in my pain however such a big Hospital does not even have a day bed or rest room for patient like me to lie down even if you request me to wait for long hours. I kept asking the nurse for solution and they felt helpless because only two doctors on duty for the day and this is quite ridiculous. All I need is resting & right treatment, not merely sitting there to wait & suffer for unknown long hours. Ended up I left without being seen by a doctor because the pain is real, the poor service is real. Think twice before visiting Auckland Hospital until they increase...

I was assaulted by Security staff and I found the nursing staff - while clearly under resourced and underpaid by this joke of a government - lacking in empathy in the emergency department. Empathy shouldn’t be dispensed based on funding from Te Whatu Ora. I think maybe some of the nurses in ED should go back on the wards for a while. The stress on them is impacting patient care. This place borders on third world and it’s not totally the fault of the people on the ground. But as patients, you’re the faces we see. Think more, say less and remember that anyone with a brain is susceptible to mental illness in exactly the same way as anyone with lungs is susceptible to a pneumonia. As the result of a stroke, my extreme anxiety is organic in cause. But these people: a doctor with a North American accent who doesn’t know New Zealand law, several of the nurses and the security staff all stigmatised me. Having lived many years in Australia and the UK, I have to say the care in New Zealand is decades behind the rest of the western world especially in mental health. Is it better than Janet Frame and countless voiceless others suffered in earlier decades? Absolutely! Do staff at Auckland City Hospital in 2023 abuse and assault mental health patients? Also absolutely! and just as in Janet Frame’s day we were a third world backwater where the research took a long time to filter through a resistant and self-satisfied culture, so we...