Middlemore Hospital is at capacity, with GPs told to only refer urgent cases.

Auckland's Middlemore Hospital is overflowing with patients as family doctors are urged to only refer the most serious cases.

On Monday the hospital was at 107 per cent capacity. On Sunday 60 patients were admitted with only 29 discharged.

It was expected about 290-330 patients would be seen at the emergency care department on Monday, with an average of 110 admitted.

Counties Manukau DHB spokeswoman Lauren Young said additional wards were being opened to deal with the influx.

Not as many patients had been discharged during the weekend as hoped.

The rush of patients was not unusual and happened from time to time, with some winter illnesses continuing into spring, she said.

An urgent note sent by the DHB to general practitioners across the city requests help in managing the demand.

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It lists numbers for doctors to call for specialist advice on managing patients being considered for hospital referral.

"We recognise that this is also likely to be impacting on demand for your services but would appreciate your support in helping us to manage short-term demand on our emergency department.

"We encourage the use of Primary Options for Acute Care (POAC) when you are able to SAFELY manage the patient as an option to referring acutely to Middlemore Hospital."

The news comes as official figures show the number of people arriving at the hospital's emergency department have increased this year.

Between January and August an extra 3743 patients turned up at Middlemore, a rise of more than five per cent during the same period last year.

Numbers have risen steadily since 2012, figures show.

The Labour Party's deputy leader and health spokeswoman, Annette King, said Middlemore's situation was not isolated: "The same thing is happening in other EDs, including Wellington and Dunedin where surgeries are being cancelled so beds can be given over to emergency room patients.

"The Government has cut $1.7 billion from the health budget over six years. The result of that is a health system and a workforce stretched to breaking point."

Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman said King's claims of health budget cuts were "misleading" and "plain incorrect".

"The fact is that the Health budget has increased by $4 billion over the past seven years to a record $15.9 billion.

"Counties Manukau DHB has received $333 million more under this Government, taking its total operating budget for this year to $1.36 billion.

Dr Coleman expressed his confidence in the Counties Manukau emergency department.

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