As a former Health Board Member, I have been thinking about Covid 19 and the existing and likely future impact on our country.

I have been thinking about the fact that our stretched Emergency Departments are our frontline and backstop where everyone has free access to our public hospitals.

There has been much focus on what people who think they might be affected should do before they go to see their G.P.-ring Health line, ring ahead of going into the G.P. Waiting rooms.

However there has been little said about Emergency Departments, the contagion that might exist in those waiting rooms, or where people should ring or go if they suspect Covid 19.

Perhaps more importantly there seems to be no National Directive, Guidelines or Protocol for Emergency Departments regarding Covid 19.

There are about 20 individual District Health Boards in Aotearoa, and many more Emergency Departments, all stretched and having at present to try to work out what best to do. Each protocol will be different, if it is able to be developed at all.

We need one National directive regarding the protocol for dealing with Covid 19. In our Emergency Departments. If the Ministry does not have the statutory powers to do this, then the Government should override this by regulation or any other powers that it has.

At the very least the Ministry should provide one National Directive for all Emergency Departments, preferably able to be enforced.

Emergency Department doctors, nurses and staff are expected to be the front door to our hospitals and will be to any major Covid 19 outbreak. They need adequate guidance and protection so that they can be proactive and not simply crisis reactive.

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