How many Category A, B vacancies?

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Re: Vax mandates dropped, July 27 story.

While it shows some movement in the right direction — the revelation “Unvaccinated health workers can again apply to work at Gisborne Hospital” — I guess the impact actuality of that statement would need the hospital to clarify some issues around how many vacancies are open to be filled by unvaccinated nurses and other staff excluded by the now defunct mandates, and separately by vaccinated nurses.

As for the question of front-line nurses to be appointed from the unvaccinated sector, a public investigation of the level of danger caused to hospital patients and other staff in terms of vaccinated staff and their sometimes multiple infections, versus the danger of completely unvaccinated staff being in the same health environment, is needed.

If the danger revealed by analysis of the situation is almost equal, then the most salient point of prevention would be the vaccination, or otherwise, of the patient at time of admission.

It looks like it now behoves Gisborne Hospital authorities to tell the public how many vacancies there are in both the Category A and B options.

Another question in all this is if previously mandated and unvaccinated staff could be coerced into “biting the bullet” and having a vaccination on application.

That would seem unlikley, so shouldn’t the focus be on improving available healthcare, rather than to punish previously mandated staff for the “sins of the past” which are subject to conjecture at this stage?

Are some local vacancies not to be filled? We should watch out for any trace of a “sinking-lid” policy coming into play, when the opposite proposition is needed.

Dennis Pennefather