Jo Raphael: Pay healthcare workers properly and make the job more attractive

More needs to be done to attract health care workers to New Zealand, writes Jo Raphael. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION

Taking care of people during the most vulnerable times of their lives requires a specific type of person.

It's not a job for everyone.

It requires someone with a personality that will put clients at ease while performing, at times, quite personal tasks.

Simple tasks that we sometimes take for granted.

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It also requires an innate sense of duty for the care and welfare of others.

We reported recently the plights of Kathryn Harland and Kathryn Crowther.

Harland, a 71-year-old paraplegic requires 24/7 care.

Crowther, 55, has cerebral palsy, and her care requirements are also quite intensive.

What these two Kathryns have in common, apart from their first names, is their reliance on the help of others to perform daily tasks.

Crowther sometimes has to rely on her 88-year-old mum, and while Harland has a husband, she needs "someone that is trained to look after me 24 hours".

This care would come in the form of appropriately trained carers, with the right temperament - only there is such a shortage of these folk that Harland was recently left alone "in a wet bed with blood in it".

Harland says her carers are "pushed to the limit and they can only do so much".

Crowther regularly is made to feel like a burden on her family and the health system.

One carer we spoke to anonymously said she recently did a 65-hour week. Her sense of duty is so overwhelming that she stays on long after she's meant to.

This type of person can easily be taken advantage of by the system - we know these people won't let their clients suffer. They will go above and beyond because it is in their nature.

We mustn't let this become the norm.

HealthCare New Zealand - the organisation that manages healthcare workers, including the ones looking after Harland and Crowther - acknowledges there is a "significant shortage" of support workers. It is ''deeply sorry for any distress this acute staffing shortage has caused to any of our clients."

The crisis isn't just affecting home healthcare. Hospitals across the country are experiencing high volumes of the sick and injured.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation president Kerri Nuku says there are concerns for patient well-being due to shortages.

"We are absolutely in a crisis."

Health Minister Andrew Little told Morning Report last month: "We have a chronic staffing shortage and we are having one of the worst winters we have ever had because of Covid ..."

This week, Little announced measures to attract healthcare workers, including financial incentives for overseas nurses and doctors.

However, he stopped short of including nurses in Tier 1 of the immigration green list, which would give them automatic and immediate residency.

For what reason, is beyond me.

The shortage is now. The need is acute. Patients and staff are suffering.

Pay healthcare workers fairly, make the roles more attractive for an overseas workforce - and make it as easy as possible for them to come here and work.