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Nelson Hospital Review Fails To Hold Leadership To Account
Nelson Hospital Review Fails To Hold Leadership To Account

Scoop

time3 days ago

  • Health
  • Scoop

Nelson Hospital Review Fails To Hold Leadership To Account

The review of Nelson Hospital released by Health New Zealand today is little more than a 'plan to make a plan' the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says. The review just restates well-established problems with leadership and severe understaffing at Nelson Hospital which are causing delayed care for hundreds of patients. The Nelson Review was commissioned after Senior Medical Officers spoke to media in March about the poor working conditions. Doctors, fed up with inaction, described massive wait times for first specialist appointments, and repeated refusals from leadership to address staffing shortages across many departments. This prompted Health New Zealand's chief clinical officer Richard Sullivan to commission a review. He said, "I would hope we will have some answers within weeks." "Four months later and all we have is a a plan to make a plan," ASMS executive director Sarah Dalton says." Doctors, nurses and patients want solutions to these ongoing problems, not a bland description of known issues leadership should have addressed years ago. "The review lacks timeframes, holds no leaders to account for these failures. Just last month Nelson Hospital was again in the news for booking "ghost clinics" in what appears to be an attempt to game the system in regard to first specialists' appointments numbers. "There is a worrying trend of poor management and poor leadership at Nelson Hospital which the review fails to address."ASMS is disappointed there has been little engagement with hospital staff - and no consultation as to the review's findings and recommendations. "We understand regional deputy chief executive Martin Keogh and National Chief Clinical Officer Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard presented the report to just a handful of senior staff and gave other staff just 24 hours' notice to a 30-minute briefing. "This is a wasted opportunity to make positive change," Dalton says the real finding from the review is that the issues at Nelson are present in other hospitals around the motu. "The review uses comparative data that paints the dire picture of medical staffing gaps in similar sized hospitals across the country too. This aligns with our own findings. We simply need more doctors," she says. "Short staffing and increased acute patient demand, coupled with a lack of accountability from our health leaders that allow hospitals to be so poorly staffed has bred a culture of getting by instead of getting ahead." Additional information ASMS has been working with senior doctors and managers to conduct in job-sizing activities independent of the Nelson Hospital Review. The following are findings from these activities: - ASMS has completed 17 service reviews (job sizing) across the Nelson Marlborough district since are nine further services still to assess. - Our findings so far - which Nelson Hospital management has accepted - show these departments are short a total of 48.7 senior medical officers. - Only 14.7 vacant SMO roles, identified in job sizing, are currently budgeted to be replaced. - Nelson and Wairau hospital district do not provide recruitment or retention allowances, or "public-only" allowances to senior medical and dental staff. This measure would help fill vacancies. - Senior doctors are routinely working beyond their contracted FTE with large amounts of unpaid overtime being gifted to the hospital to fill staffing gaps. Leadership is aware of this. - Senior doctors are not being allocated their non-clinical time (this is non-patient facing work, including teaching, planning, audit, research, and the like) due to the acute patient load and short staffing. - Nelson district has been in breach of its obligation to have formal recovery time arrangements since 2020. This measure allows senior medical staff to safely recover after working overnight calls. The district has been in breach of this SECA clause since 2020 with most departments having no formal arrangements in place. - All reviewed services are currently understaffed Services we've reviewed to date (job-sized): Nelson anaesthesia , Child and adolescent mental health services, Cardiology Nelson general surgery, Nelson ED, Wairau ED, endocrinology, Nelson general medicine, Wairau general medicine, Nelson pediatrics, Wairau pediatrics, respiratory, Nelson O&G, Wairau O&G, older persons' health, vascular surgery, neurology

Nelson Hospital review dismissed as a 'plan to make a plan'
Nelson Hospital review dismissed as a 'plan to make a plan'

RNZ News

time3 days ago

  • Health
  • RNZ News

Nelson Hospital review dismissed as a 'plan to make a plan'

The Nelson Hospital redevelopment has been on the table for a number of years, due to increasing demands from a growing population. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee Persistent delays in recruiting medical staff for Nelson Hospital has been compounded by ageing infrastructure and increasing demand for services, a review of the hospital has found. The review - released on Wednesday - comes after senior doctors publicly raised their longstanding concerns over staffing and patient safety which had led to waitlists blowing out and, in some cases, people waiting months for treatment at the hospital. Health New Zealand flew senior clinicians to Nelson in April to look further into the issues that had been raised. The report has been released publicly this afternoon and its findings have been accepted. Health New Zealand national chief medical officer Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard said a plan would be put in place to address clinical issues, access to treatment, workforce vacancies and infrastructure constraints. It would be overseen by Health New Zealand Te Waipounamu deputy chief executive Martin Keogh. The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the review failed to hold Health NZ to account, months after issues were raised and was little more than a "plan to make a plan". "The review lacks timeframes, holds no leaders to account for these failures. Just last month Nelson Hospital was again in the news for booking "ghost clinics" in what appears to be an attempt to game the system in regard to first specialists' appointments numbers." There was a "worrying trend of poor management and poor leadership at Nelson Hospital which the review fails to address" and it was a wasted opportunity to make positive change, Dalton said. The association was disappointed there had been little engagement with hospital staff and no consultation on the review's recommendations and findings. The hospital, like many others around the country, simply needed more doctors, Dalton said. "Short staffing and increased acute patient demand, coupled with a lack of accountability from our health leaders that allow hospitals to be so poorly staffed has bred a culture of getting by instead of getting ahead," she said. Stokes-Lampard said the proposed action plan would examine high-risk specialties including vascular and obstetrics/gynaecology, improve access to first specialist appointments, reduce wait times for surgery and emergency department care, develop a plan for implementing a sustainable medical workforce and address long term vacancies and infrastructure constraints. She said, alongside the action plan, planning was underway for a temporary inpatient ward to be built within the next 12 months, ahead of a purpose-built 128-bed inpatient unit by 2029 . There were also plans to install a radiation therapy machine at Nelson Hospital by 2029, so patients would no longer have to travel outside the region for radiation treatment. Several other recent initiatives were cited as having improved outcomes for patients and staff, including the recently opened ophthalmology outpatient facility, paediatric outpatient facility and dialysis building. The refurbishment of the hospital's acute mental health facility Wahi Oranga was nearing completion, and the expansion of the emergency department was on track for 2026. Staff and unions would be kept informed as the report's recommendations were implemented, Stokes-Lampard said. While the review was focused on Nelson Hospital, its lessons would also inform wider improvements across New Zealand's healthcare system, she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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