Tail of Omicron adds pressure on hospitals
Nelson-Marlborough Health is juggling staffing levels ‘‘hour by hour’’ as the tail of Omicron continues to sting in Te Tauihu (the top of the south).
Despite Nelson-Marlborough passing the peak of its Omicron outbreak in March, the pressure was still being felt in hospital as staff shortages and sickness took a toll, chief executive Lexie O’Shea told the district health board.
She outlined the situation in a report for the board meeting yesterday.
‘‘We are feeling increasing pressure in secondary care now, with a number of inpatients occupying our designated Covid wards and with staff absences and vacancies,’’ the report said.
Yesterday there were 233 new Covid19 cases reported in the NelsonMarlborough area, with eight people in hospital, well down from the peak when daily numbers topped 700 in March.
Speaking at the board meeting, O’Shea said that while the DHB area was past the peak, it was always expected that the pressure on hospitals would peak a couple of weeks later.
‘‘We’re finding ourselves with significant staff vacancies, plus sickness, plus demand – so it’s not a pleasant combination.’’
Staff members were were often having to manage the situation ‘‘hour by hour’’, she said.
Acting chief medical officer Dr Steve Low told the board the pressure on the staff was largely because people were having to do extra shifts to cover absences.
‘‘[The staff] start to get worn out by that more than anything, so that’s going to be an issue for us going forward.’’
General manager of clinical services Pat Davidsen told the board that staff shortages were ‘‘up and down’’, as staff dealt with the pandemic in their own families as well as on the wards.
That, combined with struggles to fill vacancies, meant they were having to juggle staffing as much as possible. ‘‘It literally is almost an hour-by-hour process at the moment, getting through.’’
The impact on care depended on who was ill, he said. ‘‘If the surgeon’s sick, the whole list goes down, and that’s the sort of impact we’re dealing with.’’
They were also seeing higher than normal levels of acute patients through the emergency department, and this added pressure, Davidsen said.
He added that on Monday night four patients had to stay in the ED as no beds were available elsewhere.
O’Shea’s report to the board noted that there were 3949 presentations to the ED in March, of which 505 (12.8%) waited more than six hours.
The board’s Covid-19 response meant that about 70% of normal planned care was going ahead, the report said.
‘‘NMH have put in place an improvement action plan to support those services with the greatest need.
‘‘This includes general surgery, ENT [ear, nose and throat], orthopaedic, neurology and gynaecology FSAs [first specialist assessments], as well as cataract surgery, orthopaedic surgery, and endoscopy.’’
Board chairperson Jenny Black said the pressure would continue past the Omicron outbreak as the winter flu season arrived, particularly as workers becoming ‘‘tireder and tireder’’ would lead to longer recovery periods when illness struck.
O’Shea said the board was conscious of the impending winter season and had been encouraging staff members to take leave before the next wave of sickness struck the region.