Press Release – New Zealand Nurses Organisation The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) says unpreparedness for COVID-19 and a sustained lack of investment in the resources required for safe staffing have left nurses and health care workers at Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) feeling unsafe …
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) says unpreparedness for COVID-19 and a sustained lack of investment in the resources required for safe staffing have left nurses and health care workers at Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) feeling unsafe and fearful for patient safety.
There have been more than 250 unsafe staffing incident reports in the last three months at ADHB which runs Auckland Hospital and the Greenlane Clinical Centre.
The stress nurses are under is so bad, patients have begun to comment on it, the nurse said, and departments aren’t hiring any new staff. “The patients can see how busy we are, how stressed we are. Normally we can hide it, but it’s become too much.” A nurse from a different department said staffing had been “horrendous” since the start of the Covid-19 response. “It feels like there’s nothing going on to solve the problem. We have more people using sick leave due to fatigue, we’re meant to have six nurses on every shift, but we’re lucky to get five at the moment.
Tuesday, 22 December 2020, 2:46 pm
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) says
unpreparedness for COVID-19 and a sustained lack of
investment in the resources required for safe staffing have
left nurses and health care workers at Auckland District
Health Board (ADHB) feeling unsafe and fearful for patient
safety.
There have been more than 250 unsafe staffing
incident reports in the last three months at ADHB which runs
Auckland Hospital and the Greenlane Clinical
Centre.
NZNO Organiser Justine Sachs said senior
nurses have reported that inadequate resource allocation has
led to a budget blow-out especially regarding nursing
staff. To help cope, ADHB has stopped hiring or
Auckland understaffing makes nurses fearful at work - NZ Nurses Organisation voxy.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from voxy.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ongoing pressures on the country s hospital emergency departments and persistent problems with access to primary health care highlight the need for major reform of the health system, Health Minister Andrew Little says.
The Ministry of Health s briefing to Andrew Little this week concluded that the country s health system was overstretched, underfunded and inequitable.
Photo: Stuff / Ross Giblin
His comments come after the College of Emergency Nurses NZ said that staffing shortages, overcrowding and poor access to primary care were to blame for this week s announcement that Middlemore Hospital s emergency department had reached near-capacity levels.
College chair Sandy Richardson said while the situation at the hospital was a major concern, it was part of a wider, nationwide problem. The group is part of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) union.