Covid 19: New Zealand Health Group calls to drop vaccine mandate in home, community support sector

Kathryn Harland requires 24/7 care and is supportive of the vaccine mandate being dropped for support workers. Photo / Mead Norton

About 700 "highly trained and skilled" home and community support workers could return to their jobs if vaccine mandates are dropped for the sector, a healthcare provider claims.

The New Zealand Health Group is calling on the Government to remove vaccine mandates for support workers and carers to combat a "significant" staffing crisis.

Tauranga clients who receive care from support workers agree, with one saying she "absolutely" supports dropping the mandate and is unconcerned about workers not being vaccinated.

And an unvaccinated support worker said she would "go back tomorrow" if she could.

However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday, September 2 that no decisions had been made about Covid settings and final advice was still to be delivered.

New Zealand Health Group chief executive Josephine Gagan. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand Health Group chief executive Josephine Gagan said the provider lost about 700 support workers when the vaccine mandate came into effect. These workers on average worked about 20 hours per week.

If they were to return, about 14,000 to 16,000 hours per week could be put back into the national system, which Gagan said would be a "relief".

She said the vaccine mandate had been "very important" for protecting the community.

"But now we're sort of weighing the benefit of having that versus the health and safety and wellbeing of our vulnerable people who ... are feeling the impact of the lack of staff."

Gagan said it had been asking its clients if they supported dropping the vaccine mandate.

She said clients were "almost overwhelmingly" saying if support workers tested and wore PPE (personal protective equipment), they would be comfortable with being cared for by unvaccinated workers.

This was on the basis that "it's better to have someone who's well trained and knows what sort of specialist support they need versus no one at all or someone who doesn't actually know or understand the intricacies of their care", she said.

Gagan said the organisation had also been polling those who had been dismissed, many of whom said they would "love to come back".

She said it had been "pretty challenging" to replace support workers, as many were "very highly trained and skilled and had a number of years of experience".

"Because of the significant sector-wide staffing shortages, replacing an unvaccinated carer is not as simple as finding another support worker to take their shift."

As a result, clients relied more on whānau to help them, which might work for the short-term but a family member did not necessarily have the same level of skills that a support worker would have, she said.

Kathryn Harland requires 24/7 care and is supportive of the vaccine mandate being dropped for support workers. Photo / Mead Norton

Tauranga woman Kathryn Harland has a support worker from HealthCare New Zealand, for which the overarching agency is the New Zealand Health Group. She is paralysed from the sternum and requires 24/7 care.

In July, Harland spoke to the Bay of Plenty Times about how a support worker had failed to turn up "multiple" times because, in her view, there was a "severe" staffing shortage.

On one occasion, the 71-year-old paraplegic was left alone "in a wet bed with blood in it" because her support worker did not show up.

Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times again, Harland said she "absolutely" supported dropping the vaccine mandates for support workers.

"They're very qualified, good people that know what they're doing."

Some of the support workers she had now were not all experienced with spinal care, which she requires.

When the vaccine mandate came into effect, Harland said she lost two or three support workers from her team.

"I was shattered."

She said she would not mind if an unvaccinated support worker cared for her and had no concerns about the vaccine mandate being dropped.

Kathryn Crowther is also supportive of the vaccine mandate being dropped for support workers, provided they continued to wear masks. Photo / Mead Norton

Tauranga woman Kathryn Crowther also has a HealthCare New Zealand support worker. She has cerebral palsy and needs help with washing, dressing and feeding.

In August, Crowther told the Bay of Plenty Times there had been "quite a lot of times" where a support worker had not shown up.

Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times for this article, Crowther said she would not mind being cared for by an unvaccinated support worker. She supported dropping the vaccine mandate as long as the workers continued to wear masks.

"I can see that it could help get more staff but I wouldn't want them to get too slack with their mask-wearing.

"I think it's important to protect people's health."

An unvaccinated support worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has not worked in her role since last year.

She said that due to the mandate, "I'm no longer able to do the job that I love with the people who are really important to me."

Asked if she would return to her job if the mandate was dropped, she said: "I'd go back tomorrow if I could.

"The reason I became a support worker was because of the clients ... I know exactly how tough it is out there in the workforce right now because there aren't enough people that want to do this type of work. And it is actually a rewarding job."

Rotorua-based HealthCare New Zealand support worker Rosie Pinuela said vaccine mandates should be dropped.

"We're suffering because of a shortage of staff ... If the mandate is on, then it's the client who suffers and us."

Tauranga-based HealthCare New Zealand support worker Julie Hocking said dropping the vaccine mandate for support workers "should have been done ages ago".

"Covid is out in the community now - we do follow procedures in masks and gloves and making sure that our clients and safe and we don't go to them if we're not well.

"We've had problems where we don't have enough staff, clients are missing out, the support workers that are still working are going to get sick because they're run-down and they're tired and they're having to cover for everything else - it's just not good enough."

Covid Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall's office was asked why this mandate still existed and whether the Government was looking to reassess this in the near future.

A spokeswoman for her office said it had nothing to add to what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern previously said: "No decisions had been made and final advice was still to be delivered."

On September 2, Ardern said the Government would review its Covid settings in the next "couple of weeks".

"We've been living with the traffic light system for upwards to a year now - now is the time for us to look at whether all those settings are fit for purpose. We include masks in that," Ardern said.

She said the Government was not just looking at a review of the traffic light system but at "broader settings more generally".

The Government is expected to decide on Monday whether to scrap the whole traffic light system and other Covid-19 orders, a decision that would see the remaining restrictions such as mask mandates gone by next Wednesday and end more than two years of Covid-19 rules.

NZME understands Cabinet will on Monday be deciding on a recommendation to scrap the traffic-light system altogether rather than tweaking the settings or moving to green.