Critical care ward reopens after forced closure

Wairau Hospital’s High Dependency Unit has reopened last night after staffing shortages forced a two-week closure.

Patient safety concerns sparked the closure earlier this month after health bosses struggled to fill roster gaps in the Emergency Department (ED).

Associate Chief Medical Officer Dr Andrew Morgan says the early January closure was the result of “a perfect storm.”

Staff returning from leave have helped plug roster gaps and the Acute Assessment Unit and High Dependency Unit (HDU) reopened at 7pm on Monday.

Dr Morgan says it was vital to keep the Emergency Department open.

“The main drive was that we couldn’t staff ED at that time so shutting down HDU was a way to free up staff. We went over and over it many times and that seemed to be the pragmatic solution.

“By closing HDU it freed up staff to fill some cover in ED. The crisis over Christmas and New Year was a bit of a perfect storm with preapproved leave.

“Casual staff are casual so they don’t have to work holidays and staff need rostered time off too.”

Two HDU beds were set up on the inpatient ward at Wairau Hospital to care for those who needed additional medical care but did not warrant a transfer.

Some patients who may have been cared for at Wairau prior to the shutdown were transported to Nelson, Christchurch and Wellington.

It is possible some of those patients would have been transferred anyway,” Dr Morgan says.

“Things are looking much better and casual staff not working over the Christmas period are back now and available.

“We are thankful for staff, particularly the HDU staff, and the community for all their support,” says Dr Morgan.

Staff sickness, rostered leave and a drop in overseas staff being recruited all contributed to the short-term staffing gap.

Active recruitment is well underway, Dr Morgan says.

“There is a national shortage of health care workers of all types and jobs from registered nurses to care assistants.

‘With everything happening we’ve really reduced elective surgeries and concentrated on day case surgery. Anything that is likely to require HDU care has been postponed.”

Dr Morgan says Wairau has been fortunate in that it lost no staff in ED or HDU through not being vaccinated.

“I’d like to thank the staff and particularly the HDU staff and the public and recognise that it [the closure] wasn’t taken lightly but patient safety is paramount to what we do.”