A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
No, Covid has not gone away, and rather than highlight the recent statistics mainstream media seem to have forgotten it is even a major issue — with the NZ Herald having inconspicuously put the latest statistics in a short “news brief” at the bottom of a page headed: 21 Covid
deaths (over the past week). It stated that there were 6578 (reported) new Covid cases in this same week and almost half were reinfections.
I think it is time those statistics are broken down to show what percentage of cases and deaths were not immunised, those who were, and those staff and patients who were infected or reinfected during their time working in hospital or admitted as patients.
The Whatu Ora “spin doctors” are still offering nurses, most of whom are under stress, platitudes such as enhanced nurse recruiting and increased pay offers, etc. Some equally qualified commentators are now saying on our TVNZ news and magazines that those incentives may encourage new applicants, yet some will train here simply to become eligible to take up more lucrative and less stressed employment overseas, notably Australia.
This all brings us back to the need to rehire some of those nurses and technicians who were mandated out of healthcare by the heavy-handed actions of the government of the day.
Surely there could be a rehiring of those mandated-out staff and, while unable to eliminate infections and cross-infections in hospitals, I am sure Te Whatu Ora can come up with feasible systems to employ mandated staff at minimal risk to patients and fellow workers.
