December 09, 2021
Wards hazardous as nurse shortage bites
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation is rejecting claims that Auckland is ready to handle an increase in COVID-19 patients.
Organiser Sarah Barker says statements coming from Wellington bureaucrats don’t line up with the reality on the ground.
She says even before the Delta outbreak Auckland was short 1000 nurses because new staff could not come into the country, and those positions still haven’t been filled.
“Every day we are putting nurses in hazardously under-staffed working situations, so what could possibly go wrong if you have half of the staff you actually require on any ward or emergency department? It’s hazardous and quite chaotic,” Ms Barker says.
Sarah Barker says the Government needs to make nursing training free and increase funding to Māori health services to build up the nursing workforce.