Lives at risk ‘every day’ due to staff shortages at Waikato Hospital, nurse claims
Tuesday, 10 September 2024
A woman left to die at Waikato Hospital has shone a light on staffing shortages in the emergency department, a situation that NZ Nurses Organisation delegate Tracy Chisholm says is putting lives at risk every day.
Hospital management, however, say they’ve beefed up staffing since the woman’s death and have implemented changes to avoid making the same mistakes again.
Her comments come after the Waikato Times revealed that a Coronial inquiry into the 2023 death of Barbara Tomelty at the hospital deemed her death “preventable”.
Coroner Ian Telford also revealed that she was “not subject to any effective form of clinical monitoring around the time she died”.
On the night Tomelty was admitted, the emergency department was “five RNs [registered nurses] short, four sick and one roster gap”.
He said that while the staffing levels were not seen as a contributory factor, “this inquiry has found that the nursing ratio was far lower than recommended”.
“At the time of the critical event, the nurse-to-patient ratio that night was lower than the ratio recommended by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and the College of Emergency Nurses New Zealand”.
Chisholm said it’s not an anomaly and the hospital has been “chronically understaffed” for a long time.
“This puts the lives of patients at risk every day, so someone dying due to not being treated on time was inevitable,” she said.
New Zealand Resident Doctors Association (NZRDA) national secretary Dr Deborah Powell has also claimed that patient safety is at risk at the hospital.
Chisholm also said the chronic understaffing was resulting in “overwhelming workloads” and burnout among staff.
“People aren’t getting - can’t access or afford - the care they need in the community and this overflows into the ED making the current situation really difficult.”
She also said the staffing issues could not be resolved without additional Government cash for the health sector.
According to Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora Waikato group director operations Michelle Sutherland, however, there has been a “significant” boost to emergency department staff.
“In terms of staffing, as part of our ongoing recruitment processes, we have significantly increased the number of nurses in ED, to ensure the best care for our patients.”
Sutherland said their head of ED had met with Tomelty’s family and “sincerely apologised”.
She said they had accepted the recommendations made by Coroner Telford, and implemented changes.
Specific questions about whether the delay in Tomelty being seen by a doctor was related to staff shortages, and whether a further preventable death could occur remain unanswered.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti told the Waikato Times he extended his sympathy to Tomelty’s family, and that there had been “significant work to improve on technical fronts such as the use of monitoring systems”.
“Being understaffed due to illness and other unplanned leave is challenging for any hospital. I have been assured that the number of nurses in Waikato Hospital ED has significantly increased, in line with care capacity requirements,” he said.
“There are now more registered nurses and health care assistants available, and they are looking at ways to grow that number further.”
Labour Health spokesperson - and Health Minister when Tomelty died - Dr Ayesha Verrall also extended her condolences to Tomelty’s family and friends.
She said the Coroner’s findings were an important tool for improving patient care, “and my hope is that Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ is able to make the recommended changes”.
Verrall also said she was “concerned” about a request for Te Whatu Ora to slash $1.4bn from its budget, and asking for voluntary redundancies in non-clinical roles.
“Even more pressure will be on those providing patient care such as emergency departments.”
Verrall also did not provide answers to some questions, including whether she was aware staffing concerns at the hospital stretched back to 2020.