NZNO delegate Neil Warrington said the ward desperately needed one more nurse rostered on nights in the stroke and older adult ward. While moving patients out of five of the ward’s 41 beds had relieved pressure on day and evening shifts, nights remained unsafe, he said.
Staff decided to go ahead with the two-hour health and safety strike on Monday morning, action they “didn’t take lightly”, Warrington said.
“Basically the hospital needs every bed it can get and more. What we want is the extra staff to keep the beds open — that is our ideal solution,” he told Kaitiaki.
‘Everyone is absolutely exhausted. We’re not providing the patient care that we should be providing, that we want to provide. That just burns you out.’
On top of that, the five beds were not actually closed, but flexed, “so, at any point during a shift, they can say they’ve got five more patients coming”, which would strain staff further, Warrington said.
“Everyone is absolutely exhausted. We’re not providing the patient care that we should be providing, that we want to provide. That just burns you out.”
Muriwai Ward staff first went on strike in July over unsafe staffing levels after a patient fractured their spine while the ward was short three health-care assistants (HCAs). It came after staff had been raising concerns for more than a year — and repeated warnings that particularly day about capacity.
Bed changes permanent — but flexible?
Director of operations Waitematā Brad Healey said since May, HNZ had hired two more HCAs for Muriwai Ward and “strengthened escalation processes”. Another 18 nurses had also been hired by the hospital to cover unplanned leave across the hospital, with Muriwai a priority for vacancy cover “where available”.
He also confirmed five patients had recently been transferred from Muriwai to the Hospital’s new Karekare Ward while retaining the same staffing levels in Muriwai This was a permanent move “to support safe patient care and capacity management across the hospital”.
However, he acknowledged that the beds would be flexible “when demand pressures require”.
The new Karekare ward was promised to Waitematā Hospital by Labour in 2021 as a new 30-bed ward. However, it was revealed in July that just 11 beds would available in the unit initially. Minister of Health Simeon Brown has said another 19 beds would be opened “over time”.
‘Basically the hospital needs every bed it can get and more. What we want is the extra staff to keep the beds open.’
HNZ told Kaitiaki this week that the new ward was now staffed for 15 beds.
Warrington said staff were standing strong and would not give up on safer staffing at nights.
Earlier requests for an extra nurse on morning shift and extra HCAs had not been fully resolved but efforts were underway to recruit another HCA, while pool nurses were “somewhat” alleviating the morning shifts, he said.
And now?
“We’re going to do a bit of strategising and say ‘where to from here?'”