Auckland Perfusionists Kept National Services Pumping in 2025

24 March 2026

Auckland Perfusionists with the XVIVO ‘heart box’ used for transporting transplant hearts, ECMO Transport stretcher and Essenz Heart Lung Machine. 

 

New data from Health New Zealand underscores the critical role of the twenty clinical perfusionists at Auckland City and Starship Hospital who are responsible for three national services.

Clinical perfusionists manage both heart-lung bypass and Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines which breathe and circulate blood for patients whose lungs or hearts cannot, during complex surgeries and periods of critical illness.

Simply put, when perfusionists operate these machines for patients they replicate the body’s own circulatory system, pumping blood to and from the lungs, (oxygenating the blood if necessary) and pumping the blood back through the body.

In the 2025 calendar year, Auckland perfusionists workload included:

  • Adult Cardiac Surgery: 1,150+ cases
  • Paediatric Cardiac Surgery: 280 cases
  • Organ Transplantation: 15 heart and 24 lung transplants
  • ECMO Retrievals: 22 high-acuity transports (via air and land ambulance)
  • ECMO Bedside Support: 80 critically ill patient cases
  • Weekend Surge Support: 38 elective cases performed over 20 weekend days to manage waitlists.

“Clinical perfusion is a tiny but mighty part of our health system. These twenty professionals provide the essential technical expertise required to maintain New Zealand’s National Transplant and Organ Retrieval Service, the National Paediatric Cardiac Service, and the National ECMO Referral Centre,” said Dr Deborah Powell, APEX National Secretary.

The union for perfusionists, APEX, wants to see greater recognition for a team which is always on standby to travel nationwide at a moment’s notice to provide essential life support to New Zealand’s most critically ill patients.

“Through 2025 Auckland perfusionists kept our national services pumping despite being understaffed by five full-time equivalents (FTE) for much of the winter. So many New Zealanders owe so much to this fantastic team,” concluded Dr Powell.

 

ENDS

 

For further information please contact:

Omar Hamed

APEX Advocate
Phone: 021 523 897

Email: omar@apex.org.nz

 

Contact APEX