Shortage of 2000 nurses puts surgery in jeopardy

By CATHERINE MASTERS and ELEANOR BLACK

Hospitals are facing a nationwide shortage of 2000 nurses, meaning more operations may be delayed.

The number of nurses going overseas has increased 2 1/2 times in a decade, up from 700 in 1991 to 1873 in the 2000-2001 year.

The Government announced yesterday that the Counties-Manukau District Health Board would help with some operations for the 300 children whose surgery was put on hold this week when Starship hospital could not find enough nurses to cover its workload.

But other hospitals are struggling with staff shortages, staff sickness and overcrowding.

Among those whose operations have been delayed at Starship is 15-year-old Laura Jenkins. She has a form of dwarfism and was scheduled to have orthopaedic surgery on Wednesday.

"She'd got herself psyched up to be there," said her mother, Patsie Jenkins.

Mrs Jenkins had planned to take time off work during Laura's 10-day recuperation period and this would now have to be reorganised.

"There are other people as well as the patient, younger brother and sisters who need to be thought of."

She did not blame Starship for the nurse shortage.

"The Government has to make it more attractive for nurses to stay here and to attract nurses from overseas."

James Ritchie, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation northern area manager, said his group estimated there were close to 2000 nursing vacancies nationwide.

"It's a hell of a lot."

Around 700 nurses headed overseas in 1991, 1043 in 1997 to 1998 and 1873 in 2000 to 2001, looking for higher wages in Australia, Britain, the United States, Canada and the Middle East.

He said nurses' pay, which started at around $26,000, did not reflect the training and skills needed for the job.

Nursing was suffering from "over-academisation", with nurses being pushed to gain academic qualifications, at a cost of thousands of dollars, so they could issue prescriptions. Many experienced nurses were considering career changes.

One experienced nurse at a busy Auckland hospital said nurses could not see any prospect of change.

"It's tough. I would describe the last year as the toughest," she said.

Nurses were overtired and felt "foggy".

"Everyone just feels stretched. What's happened now is it's built up. You can do it for a certain period of time, but when you see there's no hope of it ending everyone starts hitting the wall and everyone starts getting sick."

Health Minister Annette King said the shortage was a problem worldwide - "we are all fishing in the same global pool".

"Recruiting nurses overseas can sometimes help on a short-term basis, but long-term we have to train our own nurses."

She said a lack of workforce planning in New Zealand for the past 10 years was a disgrace but the Government had set up a Health Workforce Advisory Committee to devise national workforce strategies.

National's associate health spokesman, Paul Hutchison, said Mrs King had failed to address nursing pay and conditions and should stop blaming the previous Government.

Junior doctors are also facing shortages and this has had an impact on hospitals' ability to function.

Dr Deborah Powell, general secretary of the Resident Doctors' Association, which represents junior doctors, said hospital doctors, radiation therapists, sonographers and laboratory workers were also in short supply.

When nurses were short, the workload of already strained junior doctors went up.

"This is a catastrophe, it is that serious. We have a huge crisis in recruitment and retention of laboratory workers. If you can't do laboratory tests you can't run a hospital.

"We are in a crisis and just teetering on the edge of a precipice in so many of the health professional classes."

David Clarke, the chief executive of Counties-Manukau District Health, which runs Middlemore Hospital, said public hospitals could not compete against pay rates in the private sector for skills such as nursing and radiography.

He also criticised the lack of workforce planning.

Northland hospitals have 10 to 12 nursing vacancies.

"It's very hard to get a full quota of nurses," said Northland District Health Board communications manager Luke Worth.

Hospitals in the north are offering flexible hours to allow nurses who have left to have children to return to work. The health board organised a recruitment drive in Britain in 1999 and returned with a dozen new nurses.

Rotorua Hospital is down 11 nurses because of illness and has had to postpone some elective surgery over winter. In July eight operations were postponed and so far this month two have been delayed.

But spokesman Wena Harawira said the main problems were a shortage of hospital beds because of more accident and emergency procedures and winter ailments.

Waikato Hospital spokeswoman Karen Bennett said the hospital ran a constant recruitment drive in New Zealand and overseas. It has 36 nursing vacancies. Nurses specialising in orthopaedics are especially needed.

This month 21 operations have been cancelled, about half the result of the nursing shortage.

Waikato Hospital offers flexible hours and runs a "back to nursing" programme to encourage nurses who are raising children to re-enter the workforce.

Spokeswoman Bronwyn Saunders said Wellington Hospital has postponed about 12 non-urgent operations since the beginning of the month but that is not unusual in winter.