Charge nurses, who should be managing wards, have instead had to work shifts to cover for absent colleagues at Dunedin Hospital, the nurses union says.
Staff shortages last week prompted the Southern District Health Board to transfer four acute patients from Dunedin Hospital to Mercy for post-operative care as there were no nurses available so a bed could be opened for the patients to recuperate in.
Rather than cancel the procedures, the SDHB instead organised the unusual patient transfer.
"The DHB is clearly making the best decisions it can make to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the patients," New Zealand Nurses Organisation president Anne Daniels said.
"But I expect that more of this is going to come because we are losing nurses overseas, for multiple reasons.
"I wouldn’t blame the DHB, I think that they are doing the best they can under the circumstances."
Ms Daniels said the transfers and management having to work ward shifts were symptoms of wide-ranging staffing issues affecting nursing.
All nursing sectors are experiencing staff shortages due to Covid-19 issues and border restrictions limiting recruitment.
DHB roles are more attractive to nurses in lower paid sectors such as aged residential care, but still higher pay rates overseas mean many nurses are moving overseas.
The Ministry of Health this week launched a new scheme to fund nurses who have been out of the workforce or who have overseas qualifications so that they can resume work.
"This has been a long time coming ... the International Council of Nurses published a fortnight ago that New Zealand has one of the lowest number of nurses being trained of any country," Ms Daniels said.
"There have been multiple issues which have been known about by successive governments."
The safe staffing programme agreed between the NZNO and the Government was not working as there were not enough nurses available to make it achievable, which placed patients at risk, Ms Daniels said.
"The Nursing Council, nursing education providers and the Government need to start collaborating with NZNO to change this situation."
In August last year, the SDHB considered an independent consultant’s report which found its patients were often placed at risk of harm by a shortage of nurses on wards.
In response the board increased its nursing budget, but subsequent board meetings have been told that a combination of attrition, nurses leaving to work elsewhere and Covid-19 vaccination mandates meant it still had problems filling all vacancies.
The board did not respond to questions by deadline.
