Dunedin Hospital scaleback: Nurses issue warning to Government

By Checkpoint of RNZ

People will suffer and die if plans to scale back the redevelopment of Dunedin Hospital are carried out, the Nurses Organisation says.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Dunedin at the weekend, opposing the Government’s plans to revise the project due to a budget blowout.

The National Party campaigned in the election on delivering Dunedin a hospital that would be fit for purpose for generations. It has since blamed the ballooning cost on the previous Labour Government, saying the problems were hidden from them and from the public. Health Minister Shane Reti says the Government remains committed to the hospital and has “significantly increased funding for new Dunedin Hospital by hundreds of millions of dollars”.

Clutha District Mayor Bryan Cadogan told Checkpoint yesterday that a project official assured a group of southern mayors two weeks ago that the hospital project was still going full steam ahead.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation president Anne Daniels says a scaled-back hospital would result in longer waiting times, and the research on the effects of that was “very, very clear”.

“There is a mountain of it that says that the longer you wait, the more likely you are to suffer avoidable harm. At the end of the day, the people that have to wait and don’t get the treatment do become very, very ill, and then either end up in hospital EDs [emergency departments] anyway, waiting for beds that are not available, or they just die at home.”

Daniels said patient waiting times are on the rise in the current facilities.

“And it’s getting worse, and that of course is one of the health targets that Dr Shane Reti wants us to improve without any increase in resources.

“This is not how we should be providing healthcare.”

She said the planned new hospital would make a big difference, if only because it would have more rooms to deal with patients.

“One of the reasons the ED is so clogged now is because of the ineffectiveness and the inefficiency of the current facility.

“So in the new build – and this is one of the things the National Party want to remove – is the medical assessment unit, attached to the ED.”

Daniels said the Nurses Organisation was fighting for more resources in healthcare in both Dunedin and around the country.

“Everywhere is beyond crisis and people are just holding on by their fingernails.”