A New Zealand coroner warns Taranaki Base Hospital’s ER remains at high risk of preventable deaths five years after a patient died due to inadequate staffing and safety failures.

A New Zealand coroner has warned that Taranaki Base Hospital’s Emergency Department remains at high risk of another preventable tragedy, five years after 78-year-old Leonard Collett died from injuries sustained in a fall. The inquest found his death was foreseeable and preventable due to a lack of a required falls risk assessment, inadequate staffing—15 full-time equivalents short—and overcrowding, despite the department being fully staffed at the time. Although nursing staff were deemed competent, systemic failures, including poor adherence to safety protocols and unimplemented recommendations, persist. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation emphasized that unsafe conditions and chronic under-resourcing continue to endanger patients, urging the government to adopt nurse-to-patient ratios based on patient need rather than budget.