23 Feb 2011

Hawke's Bay DHB doing all it can to help

10:41 am on 23 February 2011

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board says it's doing all it can to help reduce the pressure on Christchurch Hospital staff dealing with people injured in Tuesday's earthquake.

Chief operating officer Warrick Frater says two retrieval teams flew to Christchurch overnight on Tuesday night to pick up several existing intensive-care patients and transfer them to Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings.

He says a list of volunteers from the DHB will be organised and their skills will be matched up with those needed in Christchurch.

Mr Frater says Hawke's Bay Hospital expects to transfer more patients from Christchurch to Hastings on Wednesday and during the rest of the week.