More than $1million will be invested to create nearly 17 new full-time equivalent nursing roles at Hawke's Bay Hospital, the district health board has announced.
Chief executive Kevin Snee said the new registered nurse and care associate roles would be introduced over a 15-month period, with the first of these roles filled by February 2018.
This was an investment of $1.128 million, with the majority of new roles in place by June next year and the remainder by February 2019.
Snee said as a consequence of the hard work from all staff in the organisation, the board was in the enviable position of being financially able to act on the extensive work undertaken through its Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) programme which was designed to establish the right nursing resource to meet patient demand.
Initial findings from the district health board's survey of its staff, "The Big Listen", supported the CCDM programme outcomes.