The Government’s announcement today of 378 extra staff to help hospitals cope with winter demand is a drop in the ocean of what patients need, NZNO says.
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO Chief Executive Paul Goulter says every extra staff member is helpful.
“However, our hospitals are in crisis and barely keeping up with demand before the winter respiratory illnesses hit.
“The capacity for hospitals to meet patient need has been severely depleted after two years of Government cost-cutting and funding to an arbitrary budget.
“We constantly hear from our members that Te Whatu Ora regional health directors are deliberately delaying recruitment and still not giving local managers approval to fill vacancies,” Paul Goulter says.
“These additional staff are a drop in the ocean of what patients need. The 378 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff include medical, nursing, health care assistants, allied health, support and non-clinical roles, but it is unclear how many of those are nurses.
“These additional nurses aren’t going to go far considering an Infometrics report released last year found our hospitals were short on average 587 nurses every shift,” he says.
“The same report (page 22) found that nursing staff shortages are three times as bad in winter. It found between 2022-2024 nursing staffing were about 50,000 FTE hours short in April compared to 150,000 FTE hours short in July.
Paul Goulter says additional short stay beds in the hospitals and for aged residential care are desperately needed.
“NZNO acknowledges the acute need at Middlemore, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch hospitals. But unfortunately, other hospitals are at capacity even before the winter illness peak,” he says.