An oncology nurse who has worked at Nelson Hospital for more than 25 years says the staffing shortages, run down buildings and lack of bed space is now the worst she's ever seen it.
Amanda Field began working at Nelson Hospital as a paediatric nurse in the children's ward in 1999, which she said was in a housed prefab building that was built in the 1960s.
"There was water coming down the hallway when it rained and those issues haven't changed.
"If you went into the hospital after that rain last weekend, there were towels all over the floors, down the corridors, buckets catching water and windows taped up."
"In the meantime, nurses are working on the floor with a toilet that might not flush or they can't wash their hands in one room because the sink doesn't work."
Alongside that, Field said there were persistent staffing issues.
"It is exhausting, knowing that you're going to be turning up to work short-staffed, having to carry that workload and wondering are you going to be able to give safe care, let alone the best care for a patient's outcome."
She said they needed more staff and a better hospital to work in.
Several unions joined forces on Saturday to further highlight Nelson Hospital's troubles, with hundreds of people turning out to a rally organised by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa, Public Service Association and the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists to highlight the need for change.
Members of the community and hospital staff walked the streets around the perimeter of Nelson Hospital, appealing to the government for more funding, safe staffing numbers and a commitment to building the new hospital.
Longstanding concerns around staffing and facilities
In February, the Association of Medical Specialists publicly raised concerns about Nelson Hospital being forced to operate at one stage without a medical registrar due to understaffing issues.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton said staffing issues at Nelson Hospital had been an issue for years and had been left unaddressed by DHB hospital management and now HNZ.
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said the people of Nelson deserved a new hospital that was properly staffed and resourced.
Speaking at Parliament last week, Boyack said Nelson Hospital was old, crumbling and in desperate need of replacement.
Her office was inundated with people struggling to get the care they needed, with many still waiting to receive the results of tests they had months ago, further delaying treatment, she said.
"[The government] need to listen to the people on the ground, rebuild the Nelson Hospital like it was promised and not continue to keep the business case languishing on the minister's desk."
Multiple challenges
HNZ said senior clinicians have been sent to Nelson to learn more about the issues within the hospital.
Chief clinical officer Richard Sullivan said they were focused on five areas: Patient safety, workforce numbers, capacity and waitlists, infrastructure and the emergency department.
During his time in Nelson, he said the frustration among staff, particularly the senior doctors, was clear.
"There's no doubt some of the facilities definitely need significant improvement and some rebuilding and there's no doubt that the number of beds is a challenge."
He said infrastructure issues took time to fix, but there were huge opportunities to make changes to how care was delivered.
There was a chance that some more vulnerable services in Nelson, like the sole vascular surgeon and orthopaedic spinal surgeon, may need to become part of a South Island wide service, to ensure continuity of care.
Sullivan said the senior clinicians were likely to make a number of recommendations for Nelson Hospital and he was hopeful the first of those could be made in the coming weeks, but it was likely to take months before a report with formal recommendations was released.
