Hospitals struggle to cope with ops

Patients booked for elective surgery after the summer break face delays as hospitals struggle to get back to capacity.

Nursing shortages have hit operating theatres hard and Auckland City and Middlemore hospitals are still on Christmas skeleton staff at a time when theatres should be stepping up to their normal operating capacity.

Elective surgery operating theatre numbers are also down in Wellington.

Middlemore Hospital ran advertisements before Christmas telling people to avoid the emergency department where possible.

"The pressure on our emergency department - and further down the line - was enormous," said Middlemore spokeswoman Lauren Young.

An "extremely busy" summer season of injuries, particularly among home handymen, had stretched resources, as staff were diverted from non-essential surgery to aid in acute and emergency cases.

The hospital is short of 12 nurses - 10 per cent of the optimum staffing level of 120.

Auckland City Hospital, meanwhile, is four elective surgery theatres down.

Mark Lennox, Nurses Organisation organiser for Auckland City Hospital, said only seven theatres were running compared with 11 normally.

He believes the hospital is eight full-time theatre nurses short, a situation that has been going on for a number of years.

Dr Vanessa Beavis, Auckland City Hospital's director of anaesthesia and operating rooms, said staff had been recruited from overseas but had not started yet.

"We're certainly not up to full speed, but it's not quite at Christmas-summer holiday levels."

The elective surgery service was normally reduced by about a third at this time of year, although acute and emergency surgeries carried on as normal, she said.

Many surgeons were on holiday.

Waitakere Hospital has also been affected.

A theatre completed last winter has not been used yet because of nurse shortages.

Nurse organiser Theona Wright said six nurses were needed to run the theatre, which was built to take the pressure off North Shore Hospital.

At the moment, Waitakere Hospital does only day and obstetrics surgery.

The hospital had a higher than usual surgical nurse turnover last year, she said.

North Shore Hospital did not respond to calls for comment.

Wellington Hospital, meanwhile, faces a shortage of anaesthetic technicians.

A spokesman said some would start soon, taking some of the pressure off operating theatres.

Christchurch Hospital is also short of nurses but executive director of nursing Mary Gordon said operating theatres were not affected.

Waikato Hospital has all its required theatre nurses, but wants five more.

Director of nursing Jan Adams said they were wanted to fill new positions in neurosurgery and orthopaedics.

Nurses Organisation chief executive Geoff Annals said the staff shortages were long-standing, although last year's pay settlement, which gave nurses at the country's 21 district health boards increases of between 14 and 30 per cent, was helping to keep staff levels up.

"We've still got a lot of ground to make up."

Mr Annals said adequate staffing was another important factor in retaining nurses, and a joint inquiry with the district health boards - struck as part of last year's pay settlement - had begun.

The inquiry was due to make its report in June.

Staff shortage
* One in five new nurses leaves to work overseas.
* The Nurses Organisation has claimed the country is short of 2000 nurses. A 2002 study found one-third of hospital nurses intended to leave.