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Auckland Hospital visitor has sex with patient, prompting formal complaint

September 9, 2021

Auckland DHB is making changes to its visitor policy after concerns from both patients and nurses over 'unsafe' numbers of people entering hospitals.

A patient at Auckland Hospital has laid a formal complaint after a visitor had sex with another patient on his ward.

While patients at Auckland Hospital are allowed two separate visitors per day, one dinner time arrival last week turned patients on one ward right off their food.

“Five o’clock, this young lady came in and disappeared behind the curtains and it was pretty obvious what was happening in there,” a patient named Kevin, whose last name 1News chose not to provide, said.

“There was four people in the ward and it was all just a bit staggering, all very embarrassing.”

It was quickly shut down after staff were alerted to the incident.

“There was a view that 'hey, don't be a spoil sport' but it was the wider Covid question that I was raising and in fact, I made a complaint to the staff on that,” Kevin said.

He’s concerned about visitor numbers on his ward, estimating around 60 people visited each day during his three-day stay.

Auckland City Hospital.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation are also concerned, and have since called on WorkSafe for help.

“Right now, it's really important that as far as possible, we limit the visiting. Having too many people coming in and out is risking the safety of the patients and it's risking the safety of our nursing workforce,” NZNO’s Kate Weston said.

The Ministry of Health on Thursday released revised visitor guidelines for DHBs nationwide which had been adapted in direct response to the Delta variant.

“That work is being concluded today so there will be updated guidance,” Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told reporters during Thursday afternoon’s Covid-19 briefing.

“It will be our job to make sure the DHBs have got that to set up principles and guidance.”

Auckland DHB has also since announced a halving of daily visitors, meaning only one visitor per patient per day for a maximum of two hours.

It’s also implementing a new process for staff to raise concerns about possible breaches to the new rules.

No new policy has been announced over patient sexual activity, but a perplexed Jacinda Ardern was asked about the incident on Thursday.

"I would say generally, regardless of the Covid status, that kind of thing [sex between visitors and patients] shouldn't generally be part of visiting hours, I would have thought,” she said.

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