Editorial: Health staff under pressure as Omicron swirls

Patients wait in a temporary holding area outside Caritas Medical Centre in Hong Kong where services have been overwhelmed by the Omicron variant. Photo / Kin Cheung, AP

EDITORIAL

We have been told from the beginning of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic that the worst impacts of widespread infection will hit health services the hardest.

This week, those impacts are leaning heavily on our hospitals. The response by officials has, in some cases, exacerbated the stress.

The Government surprised many within the sector when it announced on Tuesday healthcare staff who tested positive for the highly transmissible virus but were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms could work with Covid infected patients without any stand-down period as a "last resort".

Hospitals could also allow critical healthcare workers to return to work six days after being infected with Covid-19, providing they produced two negative rapid antigen tests.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation president Kerri Nuku told RNZ members were blindsided and aghast.

This week it was also revealed that house surgeons and technicians were covering nursing shifts at Middlemore Hospital after staff absences reached crisis point.

Plans had to be drawn up, scrapped and revised for birthing mums in West Auckland because of the high number presenting with Covid-19 at hospitals. Midwives spokeswoman Jill Ovens said staff working with Covid patients were in full PPE and were supposed to have a break every two hours to rehydrate.

"This often does not happen because there is no one there to take their place."

It's true that no health service in the world was ready.

Globally, health services have grappled with the same pressures and the responses have been, at times, disastrous. The World Health Organisation estimates 92 per cent of countries have faced critical bottlenecks to scaling up access to essential Covid-19 tools, including diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and personal protective equipment (PPE).

A global pulse survey by the World Health Organisation highlighted exhaustion, being infected with Covid-19, or numbers quitting the workforce as the biggest barriers to properly resourcing hospitals to meet the needs of the pandemic.

Health workforce challenges were reported by 56 per cent of countries for diagnostics and testing, 64 per cent for Covid-19 therapeutics and treatments, and 36 per cent for PPE distribution and use.

Other obstacles include lack of funding, supply and equipment shortages, and lack of data, information, strategies and guidance.

All this puts stress on staff and potentially leads to poorer outcomes for those needing care. It also compounds the trend of "burned-out" staff leaving the workforce.

Imploring Covid-infected staff to continue working also contradicts the oft-stated advice to remain home if unwell and self-isolate to avoid spread.

As one of the last territories to be overrun by the virus, New Zealand should have been better prepared to meet the pressures of the pandemic. Stopgap measures such as insisting on infected staff returning to their posts suggest otherwise.

The World Health Organisation says the latest survey highlights the importance of urgent action to address major health system challenges, recover services and mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As it has overseas, this outbreak has split open the cracks in New Zealand's health regime, with Omicron yet to peak. Is anyone in Government watching?