Taranaki hospitals are pleading with people not to visit their emergency departments (EDs) unless they need urgent and serious care.
Taranaki Base Hospital's ED has seen more than 100 people a day over the past two months.
The facility was 30 patients over capacity on Tuesday this week, and struggled to find beds for them.
Both Taranaki Base Hospital and Hāwera Hospital have EDs.
The health authority, Te Whatu Ora, is asking people to only go to them in cases of accident, serious pain and trauma.
It said the wait time for non-serious conditions could be up to four hours.
A similar plea was put out for Christchurch Hospital earlier this week.
RNZ
