Wairarapa Hospital in Masterton. Photo: Supplied
- Wairarapa Hospital "short" 40 nurses, according to staff's calculations
- Health New Zealand says current vacancies 1.5 FTE
- Burned out nurses "leaving work in tears"
- Budget - not safety - now over-riding determinant of how many nurses you're allowed, Labour Party says.
Wairarapa Hospital is short-staffed by 40 nurses across all departments, according to staff - but Health New Zealand is only advertising for one or two.
One experienced nurse told RNZ the demand in recent weeks had "brought staff to their knees".
"A colleague who has been a nurse for 30 years said that she feels defeated by what we are facing on a daily basis," said the nurse, whom RNZ has agreed not to name.
"We are seeing huge backlogs in the emergency department due to lack of beds in the hospital. We are understaffed and because of the hiring freeze (which we were assured would not affect front-line services) vacancies are not being filled.
"Our nurses are burning out fast. We are going to lose nurses due to stress and illness. The fact that we are not able to adequately and safely care for our patients has staff leaving work in tears."
Have you been affected by nursing shortages at Wairarapa Hospital? Tell us your story: ruth.hill@rnz.co.nz
Front-line staff felt unsupported by management, she said.
Some managers had even been overheard making disparaging remarks about "staff needing to work harder".
"Senior management are rarely - if ever - seen on the floor and appear to be untroubled by the current situation."
The estimated shortfall of 40 nurses was calculated using the Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) programme, a process agreed by the Nurses Organisation and the previous Labour-led Government, as a way of matching staff resources to patient demand to provide safe care.
Nurses shortages "health and safety risk" - Labour
Labour's health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall, who met with worried nurses in Masterton this week, confirmed they were "understaffed, burned out and demoralised".
"A year ago, they thought they were finally making progress on staffing, after a tough couple of years with Covid, but now they just feel they are going backwards."
According to Health New Zealand there were just 1.5 full-time equivalent nursing vacancies in Wairarapa at the end of June, of a total nursing workforce of about 260, Dr Verrall said.
"[However] even when existing positions are vacated by someone retiring or moving on, they're not being allowed to fill those gaps. It seems that management is actually trying to shrink the size of the nursing workforce, not just keep it the same, as is being claimed."
Both Te Whatu Ora chief executive Margie Apa and the agency's newly appointed commissioner Dr Lester Levy have said recruitment for nurses nationally was "ahead of budget".
Dr Verrall said however she was not aware of any regions or specialities with "too many nurses".
"What Lester Levy and Margie Apa are admitting is that they are inadequately funded for the number of nurses they need according to their contractural obligations.
"When we were in Government, we made an agreement with the Nurses Organisation where calculations are done to assess the number of nurses done in each service and the employer has to make an effort to fill those vacancies.
"Now it appears the budget is over-riding determinant of how many nurses you're allowed."
Wairarapa Hospital staff had also been told there was no budget to employ more healthcare assistants to help acutely unwell patients with dementia, Verrall said.
"Those staff members are really important for making sure those patients don't get hurt, for example, they don't get out of bed [unassisted] and fall, or assault staff and others patients.
"That seems to me a serious health and safety risk, both for staff and the patients."
Health New Zealand has been approached for comment.