Acute Assessment Unit — Hawke's Bay
The Acute Assessment Unit (AAU) is an inpatient short-stay unit that provides an acute service (non-critical) for unwell medical patients.
On this page
Where to find us
The Acute Assessment Unit is next to the Hawke's Bay Hospital Emergency Department at:
- Gate 5 Canning Road
- Hastings
Services we provide
The Acute Assessment Unit (AAU) is a 20-bed adult medical unit. The core business of AAU is the assessment and treatment of medical patients with an expected hospital stay of less than 36 hours. The AAU team is made up of nurses, doctors and allied health staff who work together to assess, treat, and safely discharge.
Patients are referred to AAU from the Emergency Department (ED) and primary care. A Senior Medical Officer is in AAU until 8pm, assessing patients, taking calls from genera practices and receiving ED referrals, enabling faster access to senior decision-making.
Within AAU, there is a Rapid Access Clinic (RAC) which allows a pathway for non-urgent general practice-referred medical patients to be seen by the AAU physicians. These patients may require investigations and diagnosis but do not need to present to ED for same day assessment. The urgency for RAC patients is usually less than 7 days.