Non-clinical Auckland hospital workers told jobs could soon be gone

By Lauren Crimp of RNZ

A team of frontline hospital workers who make beds, tidy wards and replenish supplies to ease the load on clinical staff have been told their jobs could be gone next year.

About 40 hospital support workers at Auckland Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre were called to a meeting last week and given the news.

Staff told RNZ they were shocked, some were crying, and they say patients would suffer if their jobs went.

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora said it had not proposed to disestablish the roles, but was “signalling that there may be some changes”.

The team were created during the Covid-19 pandemic to help out “a significantly stretched nursing and healthcare assistant workforce”, it said.

“The purpose of this non-clinical role was to support our ward teams by, for example, keeping wards tidy, organising equipment and supplies and making beds after patients have been discharged.

“This additional support on wards is no longer needed to the extent it was during our periods of high vacancy.”

But one affected worker – who RNZ has agreed not to name – said if their jobs were cut, clinical staff would be forced to take on non-clinical tasks.

“This will delay patient care, increase stress on the already-stretched workforce and ultimately impact patient safety,” they said.

Tasks like removing contaminated linen, replenishing supplies and helping families find their loved ones may seem simple, but they were vital for infection control, patient comfort and overall hospital efficiency, they said.

“Nurses will have to say ‘Oh sorry Mr Smith, I’ll be there to assist you to the bathroom in a few minutes, I just have to empty this linen bag, make this bed for the new admission and hand out a few more patients’ medication’.

“By the time the nurse is done, the patient will either be in pain, soiled the bed or tried to mobilise by himself, risking a fall.”

Another worker said some staff cried upon hearing the news and were already beginning to stress about paying their mortgages and caring for their children.

“It’s very shocking for all of us and already we can’t focus on our work now.”

The team considered themselves frontline staff so they thought they were safe, he said.

“They [the Government] assured us that they won’t cut the frontline workers, so we were very assured and we kept our role.

“We had many opportunities to go to ... other fields, but we didn’t because ... they assured us.”

Union E Tū is supporting the affected staff and director Mat Danaher said they had proved their worth.

“This role was actually being looked at by other districts across the country before the cuts were announced,” he said.

“We were hoping to emulate it because it’s worked so successfully to free other staff up to do what they’re meant to do, to provide clinical support to patients.”

The Government had claimed to protect frontline staff, but it was hard to know exactly what that meant, Danaher said.

“We would argue that these are essential workers because without them it’s a lot harder for those clinical staff to do their jobs essentially, so it’s an extremely risky situation.”

Danaher hopes Health NZ Te Whatu Ora will take that into account when considering whether the jobs would go.

The health agency said it was working with the affected staff to “identify potential options and solutions”, which it would seek feedback on.

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.