Fewer mental health beds

Mental health staff shortages have forced a cut in bed numbers for children and adults with acute illness in central Auckland.

The Child and Family Unit at Starship hospital has been cut to 15 in-patient beds, from its usual 20. The number of day-patient beds remains five.

The Auckland City Hospital adults' in-patient unit, Te Whetu Tawera, has been reduced to 53 beds, from 58.

The management says the reductions, which occurred last month, are temporary.

"Workforce shortages are increasing, creating a serious impact on our capacity to deliver service in the child and youth and acute adult in-patient areas," says a paper for an Auckland District Health Board committee meeting yesterday.

The board's in-patient and community mental health services were budgeted to have the equivalent of 701 full-time nurses, doctors and other health workers in July, but were 70 short of this number.

The papers say departing staff mainly gave "positive" reasons for resigning, "leaving us with no clear understanding of the drivers for the shortage".

"An overseas recruitment plan is in place ... " and new strategies were being developed for "recruiting and developing staff".

The clinical leader of mental health services, Dr Nick Argyle, said the services were coping with the bed reductions by arranging for patients to be seen more often by community staff and by making greater use of "respite options", such as sending a worker into the person's home for a few hours.

Another effect of the shortages was that it slowed the development of mental health services which needed to be expanded, including those for Maori, Pacific Islanders and children.

He said that despite the difficulties in keeping enough staff at the in-patient units, the number of mental health workers overall had increased in the last three years as new services had been added.

Part of the problem was that some in-patient unit staff had shifted to community mental health jobs; others had left to go overseas or to have children.

Last month, around 3000 mental health workers nationally went on strike for better pay.