Use A & E only in true emergency, public urged, as Auckland City Hospital’s emergency admissions hit record numbers

Auckland District Health Board is urging members of the public to only visit the emergency room at Auckland City Hospital during a true emergency.

ADHB said today in a statement that the hospital's emergency ward is currently seeing record numbers of patients, with more than 1400 presenting last week - up from 1290 in 2016.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Margaret Wilsher said that those in genuine need of emergency care will continue to receive the same standard as usual, but asked that "you help us by keeping the emergency department for serious emergencies".

The first port of call for people who are not seriously ill or injured should be a general practitioner.

"Many of the patients we see could have avoided hospitalisation if they had seen their GP when they first experienced symptoms," Dr Wilsher said.

GPs, as well as accident and medical clinics for minor injuries and illnesses can be found by visiting Healthpoint .