Hawke's Bay has consistently had one of the highest, if not the highest Covid-19 hospitalisation rates of any area in the country over recent weeks.
Hawke's Bay doctors and nurses say they have been overwhelmed. Photo: RNZ / Anusha Bradley
Doctors in the region say they are stretched and terrified of what comes after Omicron.
A nurse from Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings, whom RNZ has agreed not to name, called the situation "absolute nuts".
"You've got the added stress - we're working in N95 masks for eight hours. It is hot, it is awful conditions."
Beyond the stress of work, she said they felt underpaid and staff were constantly resigning.
"It is a very hospital-wide and organisational wide feeling of frustration that we aren't being valued, we aren't being cared for."
Over 150 people have been in Hawke's Bay Hospital with Covid-19 over the Omicron outbreak.
In late March, the hospital had the second most Covid-19 hospitalisations per 100,000 people after Auckland. From 1 to 3 April, it had the most per 100,000 people. Numbers have dropped since then.
Hawke's Bay DHB said the average length of hospital stay for someone for Covid-19 in the hospital had been four days.
Despite multiple requests, the DHB did not put anyone up to speak to RNZ. But in a statement, chief operating officer Chris Ash said the DHB had been ready for the outbreak.
"The significant planning for the expected resurgence in the community cases prior to the rapid increase in Covid-19 positive patients ensured the hospital was prepared for the increase," he said.
But that was not how the nurse saw it.
"We had plastic walls for a month before we had actual walls put up to protect us from Covid patients.
"We had to fight to get proper things in place for the pandemic and we have fought and that's what we have done for the last six months and we feel like things haven't been prepared for two years, that's for sure."
Ash noted admissions had dropped from the peak of about 40 per day.
But the nurse said while that was true, there were still many emergency department arrivals or presentations.
"The amount of people that are seen and discharged from the emergency department is hugely high. The presentations are what should be looked at.
"The admissions are the people that are really sick, but the people that are simply scared and afraid of having Covid, that we end up sending home, account for a huge amount of numbers."
She was calling on DHB management to follow through on their word, particularly with extra promised payments.
"We don't feel we are being told that help is on the way or they are listening to us."
Royal College of GPs Hawke's Bay faculty chairperson David Rodgers said his doctor colleagues were also under the pump - and stressed.
"While we're struggling and while it's tough, we're also terrified of what happens after Omicron because there's lots of work we need to get to," he said.
He was feeling bad for many patients that would end up missing out on vital care.
"So there will be people right now in Hawke's Bay sitting at home with cancers that we didn't get to.
"There will be people right now sitting at home in Hawke's Bay that have heart disease that we didn't get to, because we've been so busy managing Covid, and that work's going to need to be done and those people are going to be sicker and it's going to be harder for us to manage them when we do get them."
He said that made it tough for doctors to cope.
"So it's a nightmare for general practice because we know our patients so well, and to know that our patients are suffering because of this is so, so difficult for us.
"We're coping, and we're getting through this crisis, but it's crisis after crisis after crisis in general practice."
Health Hawke's Bay is the local primary health organisation which supports doctors, and its chief executive Phillipa Blakey said it was trying to alleviate some of the problems.
"We set up a co-ordination unit to support all of the practices in order to be able to provide that care, to be able to help them by troubleshooting, answering questions and also making sure that they had the information that they needed and processes and systems in place."
That included sending daily lists out to practices, helping them prioritise care for the patients that needed it the most.
But the problems were only compounded by what Blakey called a "significant" shortage of GPs.
"We've got between 20 and 30 GP vacancies across Hawke's Bay - we're doing some work at the moment to try and recruit more GPs into the region."