Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Dunedin Hospital nurse Anne Daniels said staff were at breaking point and do not feel they were being heard.
She said current staffing levels do not meet the huge demand the department is experiencing, meaning patients are not being seen within specified triage times. We are carrying the emotions and the psychological scars of our inability to do the job that we have trained to do.
She said staff were asked daily to take on extra hours or return to work to do overtime. We have hit the wall, we are exhausted, we can t do it anymore.
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At their most recent meeting health board members talked of developing a long-term plan to improve health services in Southland, but this provides little comfort for those in need right now. The board has commissioned consultancy company Sapere to develop a site master plan for the hospital, but I’d suggest the board also needs to consult with its staff and patients to be advised of the issues which exist at our hospital. The board is also considering an upgrade of its embattled emergency department in Invercargill. However, board chief executive Chris Fleming was recently reported as saying that he did not want to ”over-resource the department, relative to what the demands on the department should be”.