Wairau’s staffing struggles revealed

Chronic understaffing statistics at Wairau Hospital have come to light after a week of unprecedented action from local NZNO members.

It has been revealed that, for the period from January to October 2024, Wairau Hospital’s Emergency Department was understaffed for 48.96 percent of shifts and Critical Care was understaffed for 38.47 percent of shifts. The medical, birthing suite and surgical wards have been understaffed for at least 22 percent of shifts in 2022, 2023 and the January to October 2024 period.

This data was released after the Chief Ombudsman John Allen demanded an apology from Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand for withholding hospital care capacity demand management data which was requested by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation since January to November 2024 – Te Whatu Ora’s actions in not releasing the data deemed unlawful last week.

The unprecedented step by NZNO members to undertake two days of strikes last week left Wairau Hospital providing life-preserving care, with picketers situated outside Blenheim Railway Station on State Highway One on Tuesday and at Blenheim’s Forum on Thursday.

Local NZNO members say comments by Health Minister Simeon Brown have been taken especially hard after being promised more support, investment and scope of care locally – including a dialysis unit said to open in October.

“The Health Minister wants to blame health professionals for causing delays by striking, and yet as a national health system half of all day shifts were understaffed, felt more so in regional hospitals with less available local staff”, they say.

“He doesn’t want to mention that at Wairau Hospital [two weeks ago], we had no available Senior Medical Officers and a lack of available beds which caused delayed procedures and cancelled surgeries without any strikes going on.

“He’s championing this Wairau Hospital dialysis ward we’ve heard little about since the announcement, and we wouldn’t have the local staffing at our current level anyway.

“Who else has to strike for the sake of safely staffing their workplace?” The data showed day shifts across all wards across the country were understaffed 51 percent of the time and all evening shifts were understaffed 35 percent of the time from January to November 2024.

On Monday, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – which covers senior salaried doctors and dentists - also voted for a 48-hour national strike from 12.01am on September 23 until 11.59pm on September 24, 2025.