Assaulted Hillmorton staff take 1150 days off work

Five staff seriously assaulted by patients in a secure unit at Hillmorton Hospital have together been off work for more than 1150 days because of their injuries.

They include a laceration, shoulder injuries, concussion and a sprain.

The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) says maintaining staffing levels in the unit is an ‘‘ongoing challenge’’. A registered nurse at the hospital, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, went a step further.

‘‘There’s definitely a staffing crisis,’’ she said.

The Assessment, Treatment and Rehabilitation (AT&R) unit is for people with an intellectual disability with significant challenging behaviour. Some are placed there by the courts.

The unit requires 25 full-time staff, or the equivalent. As well as the five staff off work on ACC, recent CDHB figures show vacancies for about five full-time nursing positions, a psychologist and a behaviour support facilitator.

To plug the gaps, the CDHB has been drafting staff from other units and a permanent pool, as well as relying on agency staff. It is also recruiting. Meanwhile, the nurse said morale in the unit was low. ‘‘They feel under siege,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s just so sad, and it makes you so angry when you see the staff so demoralised. Until they do something tangible they’re not going to fill the gaps.’’

CDHB board member Andy Dickerson said he was aware the unit had faced staffing challenges over the years, but it ‘‘appears to be particularly acute at the moment.

‘‘There are some extremely good staff in that unit who are trying very hard to deliver a quality service in a difficult physical environment, and with a very challenging patient group.’’

The nurse described conditions in the unit as dangerous, and said safety was a major reason why people were reluctant to work there.

The CDHB is planning a building modification to the unit for a new high care area. According to the agenda for a board meeting last Thursday, this would ‘‘assist with addressing significant health and safety concerns that exist in the AT&R unit’’.

The nurse agreed it would help but said solutions were not being delivered fast enough.

She claimed the psychologist and behaviour support positions had been vacant for more than a year, and said patients in the unit were getting a lower level of care as a result.

CDHB mental health services general manager Toni Gutschlag did not believe there was a staffing crisis, and said feedback from potential applicants suggested negative media coverage was a deterrent to recruitment. The CDHB had recruited 11 psychologists to cover 7.5 full-time roles across mental health services as a whole in the past year, she said.

This was significant ‘‘as it’s a global market place for these people’’.

Despite extensive international and national advertising, she said recruiting a psychologist and behaviour support facilitator in the AT&R unit had been difficult. However, there had been progress.

Gutschlag said there were now applicants for both positions, and

‘‘They feel under siege, it’s just so sad, and it makes you so angry when you see the staff so demoralised . . .’’ Hillmorton nurse

the CDHB had recently appointed a part-time psychologist to start in the unit from next month.

Having five staff members from one area off work due to workrelated injuries was ‘‘concerning’’ and was one of the reasons behind a decision to remodel the unit to provide a ‘‘more appropriate’’ area for a long-term patient.

The patient is understood to have inflicted injuries on staff. As a result of the changes there was a reduction in bed numbers, from seven to six. While there was less space for other patients, the rejig has been described as ‘‘positive’’.

Gutschlag said on Tuesday the length of time the five AT&R staff had been off work on ACC varied from 35 days to 330. DHB managers and rehabilitation advisors provided staff support and assistance to return to work, she said.

‘‘Wherever possible, and as soon as appropriate staff are encouraged to take a graduated approach to return to work, with some working in other areas of the mental health service doing different work until they are back to full health and able to return to the AT&R unit.’’