Roads have been closed, concrete blocks moved in, and temporary fencing installed around Parliament on Monday evening as the city braces for the anti-government protest. Video / NZ Herald
An authority on New Zealand's intensive care resources believes Act's claim of poor improvement in ICU bed numbers doesn't account for the years of training ICU staff often require.
Health Minister Andrew Little defends the 18 beds that have been added since he announced $100 million of funding for ICU projects in December and is confident the 85-bed target by mid-2024 will be achieved.
Act health spokeswoman Brooke van Velden still believes not enough progress has been realised since the funding announcement, but wouldn't offer a benchmark for what she considered sufficient progress to be.
The Act Party's criticism spawned from information it requested from Little's office about the number of resourced ward beds and resourced ICU and high dependency unit beds from August 24, 2021, to July 29, 2022.
At the time of Little's funding announcement that largely concerned increasing ICU bed capacity, there were 293 resourced ward and ICU/HDU beds available that day.
Andrew Little, seen here opening a new ICU ward in Christchurch Hospital in May. Photo / George Heard
On July 29, there were 296 beds available.
van Velden claimed this proved "next to no progress" had been achieved in the eight months since Little's announcement.
New Zealand chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Dr Craig Carr said van Velden's comments misrepresented what he considered were actually encouraging numbers.
Carr even admitted he expected the 296 figure could have been lower, considering the impact of Covid-19 and winter illnesses.
Carr described how training for staff - especially for those from overseas - could last years to sufficiently qualify someone to work as an intensive care nurse.
He referenced a number of nurses who had recently moved to New Zealand after significant experience working in Singapore.
Carr said they would require four to eight weeks of orientation, four months of close supervision along with a competency review and still might need to complete a critical care course which they did part-time while working.
He said if hospitals attempted to hire staff without going through proper processes, it would be "a disaster" and potentially compromise patient safety.
The other relevant aspect was Covid-19 and winter illnesses limiting the number of resourced beds available on any one day.
It takes between five and six nurses to appropriately staff an ICU bed.
Act health spokeswoman Brooke van Velden. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Today, there were 49 ICU staff off across the country due to sickness or Covid-19 exposure. Carr estimated that could have reduced today's capacity by roughly 30 beds.
"We'd always love more resources, but we are grateful for what we've got," Carr said.
He cited progress being made at Auckland Hospital where six ICU beds had been opened in the last six months. At Rotorua Hospital, good nurse recruitment had covered staffing gaps created due to high sickness rates, he said.
"People might not see the difference [the funding is] making ... but it is making a difference already."
When the Herald put Carr's explanation to van Velden, she still believed more capacity should have been built into the system since Little's announcement.
Asked what she would consider an acceptable number of ICU beds, van Velden did not provide an answer.
She said her specific concerns about ICU capacity hadn't been sourced from those in the ICU community, but the public generally.
Health Minister Andrew Little. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In an interview, Little acknowledged criticism last year about insufficient ICU bed numbers had merit, but he defended the progress of 18 extra beds added since December.
While the plan was to have 23 beds by now, Little was optimistic the country would reach the target of 85 new beds by July 1, 2024.
