Health hiring freeze: Thames nurses warn of ED risk

Wednesday, 31 July 2024

Nurses from Thames Hospital say they are 20 full-timers short, working extra shifts and feel patients' lives are at risk.

Long wait times that put patients’ lives at risk are a result of Health New Zealand not hiring enough ED staff, nurses say.

“It’s a dangerous situation for patients, where people who would normally be triaged as urgent, even in renal failure or heart issues, are having to wait because we simply don’t have enough people,” Thames ED nurse Donna Serjeant said.

Thames Hospital is 20 full time nurses short, says Serjeant - a figure the nursing union says is based on a Care Capacity Demand Management programme calculation and would boost staff numbers by about 50%.

Although the government has denied a hiring freeze of clinical staff, Serjeant says “we’ve been told they can’t advertise for staff”.

Donna Sarjeant, ED nurse at Thames Hospital says it is getting worse daily and patients’ lives are at risk.

Health NZ has said recruitment is paused on hospital roles that aren’t patient-facing and public health roles that are not community-facing as part of cost cutting.

“Thames is an example that this freeze has overflowed into the front line,” says Serjeant, a NZ Nurses Organisation delegate.

Health NZ was approached for comment but did not respond by deadline.

The nurses urged the local Coromandel community to join them in a picket outside the hospital on Tuesday, as they voiced frustration at understaffing and increased workloads.

As well as endangering patients, understaffing is leading to burnout, Serjeant said.

Bradley McNamara on the picket line at Thames Hospital.

More patients are coming to hospital as some 24-hour ED services are closing at 5pm, or GP practices closing altogether, because they don’t have staff available.

Existing nurses are working on days off and doing overtime, she says.

“People aren’t getting the care they need in the community.”

Patients who don’t have a “life or limb threatening” problem could face long waits at the North Shore Hospital emergency department, Health NZ-Waitematā warned on Monday.

It’s difficult for nurses, who want to do a good job but feel can’t under the conditions, she said.

The nurses were calling on the government to address staffing and fund “proper patient care”.

Overstretched emergency departments are a nationwide issue, with hospitals including Waikato, North Shore, Tauranga and Whakatāne telling people not to come if possible.

Charlene Colvin said she was shocked by her experience in Waikato Hospital, calling it “chaotic, pandemic, third world country type stuff”.

After 34 years in and out of the hospital she found it heartbreaking, saying staff were “so stressed and over worked they are forgetting basic rules of healthcare”.

The hospital warned of “high demand” and longer than usual waiting times in late July.

And a recent patient of Tauranga Hospital said she waited 11 hours to be told she still wasn’t close to being seen - so she left.

Shontelle, who only wanted to use her first name, said she had shortness of breath and was struggling to breathe, and a painful burning sensation in her chest.

“A man came in bleeding from a gas explosion and his face was all cut - but he was still waiting after nine hours.”

Worried doctors in the Far North say there’s a critical workforce shortage, and in Dargaville Hospital ovenight doctors have been replaced by a telehealth service.

On Monday, Health NZ-Waitematā warned people if it wasn’t “life or limb threatening” they would face long wait times at the North Shore Hospital emergency department.