DHBs were currently consulting with unvaccinated staff to answer any questions they might have, discuss other options, support them through the process and encourage them to consider vaccination. Photo / AP
DHBs were currently consulting with unvaccinated staff to answer any questions they might have, discuss other options, support them through the process and encourage them to consider vaccination. Photo / AP
More than 1300 district health board staff have been stood down because they were not vaccinated by Monday.
As at 9am today, 1309 unvaccinated staffers in the total DHB workforce of roughly 80,000 had been stood down after not meeting the Government's vaccination mandate, which dictated all DHB staff must have had their first dose by 11.59pm on Monday.
Waikato DHB had the highest number of staff stood down, with 154, followed by Bay of Plenty (123) and Counties Manukau (119).
However, the DHBs with the highest proportion of unvaccinated staff stood down were Northland, Taranaki, Nelson-Marlborough and West Coast - all on 4 per cent.
Respectively, the four DHB had stood down 105, 54, 110 and 10 staff.
The overwhelming majority of stood-down staff - where their employment was named - were nurses at 463.
A total of 723 staff had been defined as "other" - which applied to staff of a particular role of which less than three staff had been stood down, in an effort to protect their privacy.
The remainder of the defined roles for unvaccinated staff included senior medical officers, midwives and registered medical officers.
DHBs spokeswoman Rosemary Clements said DHBs were consulting with unvaccinated staff who had been stood down to answer any questions they might have, discuss other options such as redeployment, support them through the process and encourage them to consider vaccination.
If staff chose to be vaccinated while they were stood down, they would be able to return to work.
"We have engaged and agreed with the health sector unions on the processes we are following."
She said service delivery impacts would vary between DHBs and mitigations were in place where needed to minimise any impact to services.
"Our absolute focus is on ensuring continuity of patient care."
An update on how many staff would be leaving DHBs due to their unvaccinated status would be provided next week.
Full breakdown
• Northland:
Total: 105 Nurses: 37 Senior medical officers: 3 Midwives: 8 Other: 57 Proportion of staff: 4 per cent
• Waitematā:
Total: 86 Nurses: 22 Senior medical officers: 5 Registered medical officers: 0 Midwives: 6 Other: 53 Proportion of staff: 2 per cent
