A Tauranga resident was also concerned about the number of available beds in the hospital. Photo / George Novak
A Tauranga resident was also concerned about the number of available beds in the hospital. Photo / George Novak
New Covid-19 cases topped 1100 in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board region yesterday, after bed data showed Tauranga Hospital was "essentially full".
National Party health spokesman Dr Shane Reti says the combination of nearly full hospitals, too few nurses and Omicron cases surging around New Zealand as winterapproaches is a "deadly mix".
He collected data from health boards that showed Tauranga Hospital was among the fullest in New Zealand.
Reti's February 9 figures, released last week, had the hospital at 90 per cent capacity.
Updated data provided by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board (DHB) to the Bay of Plenty Times, however, showed the hospital at more than 93 per cent full.
As at February 24 at 11.30am, 298 beds out of 319 beds were occupied.
Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller was concerned the hospital was "essentially full", and a local resident said hospital staff appeared "overworked and burned out" during her visit.
The DHB says it recognised the pressure on staff and had "well-established processes" to match staffing to demand across all wards, while Health Minister Andrew Little said hospital capacity changed daily and he was "confident" hospitals were prepared for Omicron.
Yesterday, 1185 new Covid cases were reported in the DHB region and 10 people were in hospital with Covid. Toi Te Ora Public Health reported yesterday afternoon all 10 were in Tauranga Hospital.
Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller said he was "exceptionally concerned" at the figure. Photo / George Novak
Muller said he was "exceptionally concerned".
"We're really only just starting in our community to feel the effects of Omicron and already we start this journey of seeing it go through our population with an almost full hospital."
Muller was worried the community would be put under "real pressure" dealing with sick Omicron patients and about the impact it would have on those who waiting for elective surgeries.
"It talks to my immense frustration that we let the opportunity go by for the year that we didn't have Covid where we should have been building for this eventuality and now we find ourselves essentially full before the Omicron battle begins.
"Hospitals have been preparing for months for the Omicron outbreak and are managing to ensure they have capacity to deal with Covid patients. This will involve deferring planned care, which has happened in each of the previous outbreaks.
"Actively managing down planned-care demand is now happening and will mean more beds available for Covid patients.
"The success of our vaccination campaign means even though more people are getting Covid, far fewer are needing hospital care."
Little said hospital capacity fluctuated and the number of patients in each hospital changed daily.
A Tauranga resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, visited a patient last month at Tauranga Hospital.
The resident raised concerns about staffing, the number of available beds and how the hospital would cope once Omicron case numbers were even higher.
"The nurses do their best but they're so under-resourced. They've got far too many patients for each nurse."
Staff were "overworked and burned out", the resident said.
"They can't even cope in summer with hardly any patients really. There's no way they can cope with winter with Omicron."
They said there were statistics on the wall in the ward such as bed occupancy and number of ICU beds available.
"At the time there were four [ICU] beds for the whole hospital, which concerned me."
Some staff members were not wearing masks properly, which made them "deeply worried" for when Covid was in the hospital.
They were also concerned because the hospital was not giving all patients rapid antigen tests (RATs) before admitting them to Accident and Emergency or a ward.
"This is such a simple 15-minute test that would help stop the spread of Covid in our hospitals, protecting patients but more importantly the staff. Otherwise, they will have even more staff shortages due to isolation requirements."
Tauranga Hospital had reached more than 93 per cent capacity on February 24. Photo / George Novak
Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief medical officer Kate Grimwade said it was rolling out universal RATs for people presenting at Tauranga Hospital.
"Until last week our local numbers were still low, which can cause issues with reliability with RAT tests.
"During this period, the process has been to screen patients via a questionnaire aimed at symptoms and risk of contacts at the door. Patients who present with symptoms or other risk factors have been receiving a PCR test."
Board director of nursing Julie Robinson said it acknowledged the workload pressure the health sector was under, including nurses.
A national shortage of nurses, partly because of border closures, made recruitment challenging. Local and national campaigns for nurses were under way to address this, she said.
"During the coming weeks, the health sector will come under increasing pressure as we respond to Omicron. Our nurses are playing a key part in this response, and are working incredibly hard."
The hospital had an operations centre, which used "well-established processes" to match staffing to in-patient demand across all wards on a daily basis.
"Over the next phase of Covid we are asking all staff within the hospital to assist supporting the wards so nurses and other health professionals can focus on the essential care that only they can provide.
"Please be patient and kind with our nurses as they work to protect the health of our communities."
