Nursing shortages continue to bite at Counties Manukau DHB
11 Mar, 2021 04:45 AM
3 minutes to read
Local Democracy Reporter
Counties Manukau District Health Board is short 150 nurses, a revelation the New Zealand Nurses Organisation is calling outrageous.
The shortages were highlighted during the parliamentary health select committee s annual review of the DHB yesterday.
Chief nurse Jenny Parr said it was a problem as the DHB tries to juggle staff working in managed isolation facilities, while the country s closed borders restrict access to overseas workers. We do have a number of additional nurses that are working in our managed isolation facilities so that does have a constraint around our ability to get casual staff when there s a need.
But she said the DHB has a vacancy rate of less than 5 per cent for its 3200 nurses and said staff turnover had been significantly reduced since the country’s borders have been shut. However, New Zealand Nurses Organisation manager of industrial services Glenda Alexander said such workforce shortages are having an impact on nurses working in hospitals.
RICKY WILSON/STUFF
Senior medical officer Richard Chen and his colleagues at the Jet Park quarantine facility have helped nearly every case of Covid-19 from the Auckland August cluster (first published October 2020). “That’s why we have members reporting that they are stressed and overwhelmed,” Alexander said.
Nursing shortages continue to bite at Counties Manukau DHB rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Counties Manukau DHB underfunded by $500m over 21 years, MP says nzherald.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzherald.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.