Kerre Woodham: The hospitals are overwhelmed and it's not even winter

Last Friday, I caught up with the neighbours.

It was a long time between drinks and it was lovely to sit on the deck on one of the few glorious evenings in Auckland, learning a bit more about the people in my street.

I already knew that one of the women was a nurse and it appeared she was a very good one at that. She had worked around the world in public hospitals and in private clinics for the stonkingly rich and clearly loved what she did. Or rather, she used to love what she does.

The sheer grind of working in a public hospital in New Zealand was taking it out of her. The lack of staff, the weight of demand for hospital services was absolutely relentless. She said recently she had been asked to go back on duty on Tuesday evening, despite having worked that day to cover for a sick colleague.

She didn't get home till Thursday morning and she was rung late that day, roused from her sleep, and asked to come in and cover for another vacancy. When she groggily explained, it really, really wouldn't be all that safe for her to come in the caller reluctantly rang off and went in pursuit of another exhausted nurse. Good luck finding one.

Now this is an anecdotal story. I haven't seen her timesheet to verify that what she said was true, but what she said certainly struck me as believable. She also said nobody is allowed to talk publicly about how dreadful the conditions are, how poorly staffed they are, how exhausted they are, what kind of rabbits they're having to pull out of hats to look after patients.

I think any patient who's been in hospital recently will tell you that the nurses are doing an incredible job, but even they can see just how frantic everything is, just how hard the nurses are working - that they're running, not walking. They're trying to be the professionals they are, in the most appalling conditions. You will lose your job if you put your name to any complaints publicly, she said. And that has been told to me before by texters on this show.  

But this is the state the hospitals are in now, in what we laughingly call the end of summer. This is what our hospitals are like with nurses working around the clock, before the dangerous flus and viruses hit us over winter. One under pressure ED is at 195% capacity.

Doctors and nurses have raised concerns about the winter ahead, given this is usually a quieter time for hospital numbers, a time where medical staff can take leave, can draw breath and gird their loins for the winter ahead.

At Auckland City Hospital, the ambos had to step in and care for patients on Sunday and Monday because ED beds were not available. Therefore, there are no ambulances available to pick up the next people who need ED help.

Patients are being diverted from Auckland hospitals to North Shore Hospital because there are some spare beds on the shore, apparently. Dunedin's the same. We all locked down, stayed home, got vaccinated so as not to overwhelm the hospitals.

Well, bugger me, the hospitals are overwhelmed and it's not even winter.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation’s Anne Daniels said the pressure on EDs means we're in trouble right now. It's not just a few hot spots that need dampening down; the entire nation is on fire. What an absolute mess.

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