Nurses affected in cost-cutting at Christchurch Hospital

Christchurch Hospital has started moving nurses between wards and cutting back on using agency nurses to cut its costs.

The hospital hopes to save $3.58 million this year by changing nursing rosters and reducing the time patients spend in hospital.

Last year the hospital had a budget blowout of $11.6 million, and the nursing budget was overspent by $241,000.

Nurses Organisation president Jane O'Malley said yesterday that several New Zealand hospitals were juggling nurses between wards and speciality areas to meet budget requirements.

"It [the rostering system] is quite open to abuse. It treats nurses like commodities. It is not McDonald's but that is certainly how nurses are being managed."