Media release

From: Pasifika Medical Association Group

A lot of money and time is being spent on educating people to stay out of Emergency Department
unless it is a life threatening emergency. This is especially true for Pacific people, who appear to
use Emergency Departments more than other ethnicities. In 2019, a survey was done of people
who came to the Emergency Department at Counties Manukau Health with a medical condition
that was considered by the Emergency Department nurse to be non-urgent, on why they had come
to the Emergency Department. The most common reason for coming to the Emergency
Department for Pacific people (as well as for other ethnicities) were that they were told to do so by
a health professional, including their GPs. This is contrary to the belief that people are using
Emergency Departments because they don’t know that they should see their GPs, and further
studies should be done to make sure that programmes to discourage people from using Emergency
Departments do not have unintended consequences.