A highly experienced nurse is so distraught over her treatment by the Tairawhiti District Health Board she is leaving the country.
Poh Sim Roberts, 57, has 35 years' experience and had been working in Gisborne Hospital's intensive care unit for more than three years when she was transferred to a newly created flight team and dialysis unit last April.
The new air transport service was created to provide more efficient flights for patients and reduce costs by $200,000 a year.
Roberts trained with flight nurses and dialysis teams in Waikato and Hawke's Bay for five weeks. The Herald on Sunday obtained a copy of her training documents and a competency test, in which she scored 85 per cent.
But in November, the medical flight director refused to certify Roberts, based on allegations she failed to provide oxygen to a patient and did not remain calm on a flight.