Source: Radio New Zealand
More than 70 beds will be added to hospitals ahead of the colder months, which the government says will reduce wait times. File photo. Supplied/ Waikato Hospital
Millions in new government funding to meet winter demand is a drop in the bucket, healthcare unions say.
The $25 million funding will see 378 full-time staff and 71 beds added to hospitals ahead of the colder months, which the government says will increase patient flow and reduce wait times.
Health minister Simeon Brown said the goal was to keep people out of hospital by strengthening GP-level care, and improving patient flow by getting people out of those beds and into care in the community.
“Of course, this plan is not a silver bullet,” he said at the announcement at the Auckland Business Chamber on Tuesday morning.
“We know that demand will still be high and hospitals will face record levels of patients this winter,” he said.
“But by planning early, expanding capacity and supporting front-line teams we give our staff the tools, resources and flexibility they need to manage this pressure, and deliver the care when New Zealanders need it the most.”
The package included funding for 567 short-stay spots in aged care facilities, to free up space in hospitals.
Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin said it was great to see the value of the aged care sector being recognised, but it was already at more than 90 percent capacity.
Finding beds to fund, and the staff to go with them, might be tricky, she said.
“So you might have money, but can you find a bed? And can you find a place that has the beds and the staffing that you need?” she said. “When you starve the sector for so long, you can’t just suddenly dial it up.”
It could be an option for aged care facilities – which were predominantly privately owned – to physically add more beds, but Martin said they might be reluctant to grow their footprint or hire staff on a short-term basis.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as easy to implement as they think it is,” she said. “There aren’t 567 short-term care beds just sitting empty right now, in New Zealand.”
Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said demand needed to be addressed in the community first.
“It’s a pretty standard winter plan, the sort that was rolled out under Labour governments,” she said.
“But the difference here is now we know 650,000 New Zealanders each year can’t afford to go to the general practitioner because of the cost. As long as that’s the case, demand will remain high in our hospitals, and they’ll continue to struggle.”
Labour has committed to three free GP visits for every New Zealander, if they are elected, to treat people before they need hospital level care.
Meanwhile, the nurses’ union said any increase in staff was welcome, but this announcement severely underplayed the shortage.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said it was not yet clear how much of the funding would go towards hiring nurses specifically, but the union’s own research estimated a business-as-usual shortage far beyond what could be met by this funding.
“We’ve got an ongoing shortage of nurses across the hospital system, and our research showed that our hospitals are short on average 587 nurses every shift, and then you’ve got the impact of winter coming.”
Sarah Dalton from the senior doctor’s union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, called it a drop in the bucket.
When that criticism was put to Brown, he stood by his announcement.
“We’re focused on putting more resource into the front line and actually making progress, and actually, this has been a plan put together by working with our local hospitals across the country, them highlighting what’s going to make the biggest difference.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
