Canterbury student finding solution to age old farming problem
University of Canterbury student Jade Luxton has identified a critical gap in New Zealand's livestock vaccination process - which is costing farmers millions annually and raises animal welfare issues. Jade Luxton was still in high school when she came up with the idea for Steerineedle - a portable holster that sterilises needles in seconds. She chats to Jesse.
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Waikato mental health patients sleeping on floor mattresses because of bed shortage
The Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre at Waikato Hospital. Photo: Supplied A mental health nurse working at Waikato Hospital says there's a shortage of community beds to discharge patients to, while acute mental health wards are running at 140 percent capacity. Health New Zealand (HNZ) said there had been a reduction in occupancy at the hospital's Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre acute mental health inpatient unit, until recently. Earlier this month, RNZ revealed that a ward full of patients at Auckland's North Shore Hospital could not be discharged as they had nowhere to go for non-hospital care. The mental health nurse, who did not want to be named and was speaking in their capacity as a Nurses Organisation union member, said while over-capacity has been a longstanding issue, the situation was getting "increasingly worse". They said some mental health patients were sleeping on mattresses on the floor in interview rooms, seclusion rooms and sometimes in other wards due to the lack of beds. "In mental health [wards], we're struggling with getting good sleep … we're trying to deal with anxiety or manic symptoms, and not having your own bedroom or a routine area to rest all impacts that recovery process," they said. They said patients were getting agitated and were frequently violent - some had been dealing methamphetamine on the wards. Last month, a person was allegedly attacked at Waikato Hospital. Two sources told RNZ the victim was a staff member] on the mental health wards. The nurse said one of the key factors contributing to problems transitioning patients to the community was a lack of beds in mental health and addiction residential services. They said patients often did not have a supportive household to go to after leaving hospital, and needed facilities that had 24/7 care and oversight for their medications. Many facilities were already full and had a waitlist, respite services were maxed out, and there was also a lack of emergency housing options, the nurse said. RNZ asked some of the major providers of mental health and addiction residential care in Waikato about current demand and waitlists - including Pathways, Manaaki Trust and Ember Korowai Takitini - but none would comment, and one referred RNZ back to Health NZ. Labour's mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary said what was happening in Waikato showed underfunding in both the public health and community provider systems. Labour's mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The Public Service Association - the main union for mental health nurses - said community mental health was resource-short, with workers having their pay equity claims scrapped by the government, and a shortage of beds and purpose built facilities. "Major investment and commitment is needed by the government in community mental health, by the government," national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said. She said there was a "culture of fear" among many community providers that they would be punished by HNZ or the government if they spoke out about the reality they were facing. Fitzsimons said she wanted HNZ and the government to be clear with providers that they could present their realities, so New Zealand could know how many beds it was short of. Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said in a statement that he recognised the "significant pressure" on inpatient facilities, and that he had "tasked all of the Regional Executive Directors with improving the flow of patients and quality of care". He had no direct comment for RNZ's questions about the occupancy of Waikato Hospital's acute mental health wards, and the shortage of mental health beds in the community. Doocey's press secretary said the minister had not prevented anyone from speaking publicly, and Doocey said he encouraged everyone to raise any issues with him - either personally or publicly. Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii HNZ's mental health and addictions lead for Te Manawa Taki (the central North Island) Vicki Aitken said "any decision to make comment to media is one for our community providers to make and is not for Health New Zealand to speak to". She said it had been working with community partners over the past year to improve the flow of patients to community settings, but admitted that the acute wards still experienced spikes in demand. Aitken said the demand for acute mental health services in Waikato continued to increase, due to factors including meth abuse and "wider system issues". She said occupancy at the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre acute mental health inpatient unit was at times an issue, but added that there had been a reduction in occupancy until recently. Aitken said a new acute adult mental health facility in Waikato - with 64 beds - was on track to open next month. The facility would have four more beds than the exisiting Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre, which would be replaced. In 2019, 35-year-old Joe Carter had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a windowless room in the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre at Waikato Hospital, when he went out for a walk and later committed suicide . He had been moved between wards and put into a converted interview room because the centre was at 120 percent occupancy. Meanwhile, the mental health nurse said short staffing and the shortage of senior nurses was exacerbating the situation, and they were struggling to cope with the criminal behaviour on the ward. "We have people that are admitted with being intoxicated with meth, and they've also been dealing in the community … to help pay for their habit, and they end up attempting to deal on the ward as well to other people that are meth users as well. "If they get to go on leave they'll try and bring it back, they get visitors, they'll try and bring it in whatever they're carrying when they're visiting, everything has to be checked," she said. The nurse said they had been told by management that the standard procedure when they saw such behaviour, and when they were assaulted, was to file a 105 police report - which she said was a long form they struggled to find time to fill. She said the police often dropped off people on substances, who were admitted due to risky behaviour - "Quite often police don't stick around, they're just here to transport," she added. Police have been implementing their phased withdrawal from mental health callouts , with a 60-minute limit on patient handovers at EDs, taking effect nationwide as of June. The nurse said staffing was further stretched due to an average of several staff on the acute mental health wards taking ACC leave due to injuries caused by patients - including head injuries and some unrecoverable injuries. HNZ's Vicki Aitken said any illegal drug use on premises would be reported to police immediately and police are "promptly involved" in instances where there had been assaults on staff. She said the acute mental health wards were fully staffed and HNZ was in the process of recruiting more permanent staff. "When there are roster gaps or a need for additional staffing due to demand we bring in appropriate casual staff," said Aitken. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Chatham Islands building materials rusting 22 times faster than inland rural NZ
BRANZ senior scientist Zhengwei Li. Photo: Supplied The headline and topline of this story have been corrected to show the rusting rate is 22 times faster, not 50. Building materials on the Chatham Islands are rusting up to 22 times faster than inland rural NZ, according to research by locals and the Building Research Association. Surrounded by sea and exposed to the elements 800 kilometres out in the South Pacific, the working theory is that salt-laden winds are to blame. Denis Prendeville, a sixth-generation Chatham Islander, had spent 23 years building fences for the Department of Conservation - so he knew well the island's rugged environment . "A hundred years ago, it was forested," he said. "Well, through clearing bush for grazing, the wind has actually finished off a lot of the remaining bush on the Chathams, so it's quite bleak in places." Now, reforestation work was underway, and pests needed to be kept out. "You haven't got anything if you haven't got a fence," Prendeville said. But using all the normal materials, a fence on the coast could rust through in seven years. Prendeville had learned ways around it - using thicker wire, and plastic inserts to keep metal from touching metal, which were the areas which tended to rust first. In the swamps, he usually skipped the bottom two lines of wires, as they tended to rust through in a year. But across the board, things needed replacing more often . "The expense on the Chathams, well you just double it to the New Zealand standards," Prendeville said. Building Research Association (BRANZ) team leader Dr Anna de Raadt said the working theory was that the salt-laden winds could be to blame, with gales picking up the sea spray and throwing it onto fences and roofs, speeding up that rusting process. She said their research has been a collaboration with the community. "Talking to the people living there, it's amazing to hear stories," she said. "One of them really brought it home for me. They were saying, 'Oh we buy a car, bring it over from the mainland to the island, and within three years it's rusted out.'" Scientists set up four racks of metal squares around the island, and left them out in the elements for a year. The metal testing samples. Photo: Supplied De Raadt explained one set was set up at a local school. "And it was really fantastic to see their eyes light up and actually hold the samples and look at them, because they'd see something like a beautiful, shiny metal coupon, and they'd compare it to one looking like a swiss cheese." The results showed corrosion levels were off the charts. An unprotected carbon steel plate, a millimetre thick, was completely gone within a year, despite lasting more than 50 in rural inland areas. BRANZ established more sites, and confirmed the results - the corrosion rates were among the highest defined by international standards. Carbon steel, used in common building products like beams, framing, and nuts and bolts, corroded at a rate more than 22 times faster than inland New Zealand, and more than three times the rate at our harshest coastal sites, like Oteranga Bay in Wellington, and nearly double the highest corrosion rate recorded at marine sites in Europe. "We are testing other materials to see how they will perform on the Chatham Islands environment," de Raadt said. "This then can help inform people's choices about what material to use where." "I guess the main point for us is: the right material in the right place." The current rating system fell short. BRANZ senior scientist Zhengwei Li said materials approved for Zone D - the classification long-held by the Chathams - just didn't hold up. "If you use materials approved for Zone D corrosivity in the Chatham Islands, you will have early material failure." The Chatham Islands Photo: RNZ/ Matthew Theunissen Building company owner Leith Weitzel moved to the Chathams from Wellington just over a decade ago, and said it was definitely an eye-opener. "So up in the eaves of sheds or houses, where you would have some sort of mild steel product or galvanised steel product, if it's not getting rain washing on it, it will start to show corrosion in a few years." It changed the materials they used. "We always opt to use stainless steel externally as much as we can, and we find that's made a huge difference." But even using marine-grade stainless, tea staining - that is, those patchy orange streaks that appeared on metal like water from a tea bag - still occurred. Weitzel said people were often tripped up. "They might buy a flatpack shed or they'll buy a tiny home, something that's of a kit-set nature, and they express that it is quite corrosive and windy and wild over here, and these manufacturers don't supply some of these buildings, these units up to standard, and they find over time that they have used the wrong nails and structural fittings." It was an awareness problem, he said - something the building research association hoped to improve as it took on further tests. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Nurses to strike for better nurse-to-patient ratios
Healthcare workers hold placards at a picket line in Wellington as nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants strike nationwide. Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone Nurses union members want better nurse-to-patient ratios and a return to hiring every graduate, as they prepare to strike for two days in early September. Health New Zealand said it was deeply concerned by the strike plans, which it said would cause the postponement of more than 2200 planned procedures, 3600 first specialist appointments and 8000 follow-up appointments. Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said their Te Whatu Ora members voted strongly to go on strike, after a solution could not be found through bargaining. The strike action is planned to take place from 7am to 11pm on Tuesday, 2 September and Thursday, 4 September. "I think it very clearly points to nurses being fed up with the government's inability to resource the system properly to ensure patient safety," Goulter said. Nurses were stretched and burnt out, and the union was asking the health agency to return to the bargaining table with a commitment to hire more staff when staffing models required them, to hire every nursing graduate, and "starting the work on nurse-patient ratios that are enforceable". Nurses last went on strike in late July , with similar demands. Health NZ said it was happy to return to the bargaining table, and was committed to finding a solution. It said it had not yet received a formal notice of the strike from the union, only an informal notification. Health NZ chief executive Dale Bramley said it would have a "major impact" on thousands of New Zealander - many of whom had already waited a long time for appointments or surgeries. "We want to do our very best for our nurses and we think we've put a very fair offer on the table," Bramley said. He said they were already working to improve nurse-patient ratios. The number of hospital beds across the country had gone up by 100 to 200, while the number of full-time equivalent nurse had increased by more than 3000 in the past two years. Turnover among nursing staff had dropped from 13.3 percent to 8.1 percent, and the current vacancy rate was 3.6 percent. "At any one time in our pipeline of recruitment we have up to 2000 nurses in our pipeline," Bramley said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
