About 40 hospital support workers in Auckland were told last week their jobs were on the line. File photo. Photo: 123RF
A team of front-line hospital workers who make beds, tidy wards and replenish supplies to ease the load on clinical staff have been told their jobs could be gone next year.
About 40 hospital support workers at Auckland Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre were called into a meeting last week and given the news.
Staff told RNZ they were shocked, some were crying, and they say patients would suffer if their jobs were gone.
Health NZ Te Whatu Ora said it had not proposed to disestablish the roles, but was "signalling that there may be some changes".
The team was created during the Covid-19 pandemic to help out "a significantly stretched nursing and health care assistant workforce", it said.
"The purpose of this non-clinical role was to support our ward teams by, for example, keep wards tidy, organise equipment and supplies, and make beds after patients have been discharged.
"This additional support on wards is no longer needed to the extent it was during our periods of high vacancy."
But one affected worker - who RNZ has agreed not to name - said if their jobs were cut, clinical staff would be forced to take on non-clinical tasks.
"This will delay patient care, increase stress on the already stretched workforce, and ultimately impact patient safety," they said.
Tasks like removing contaminated linen, replenishing supplies and helping families find their loved ones may seem simple, but they were vital for infection control, patient comfort, and overall hospital efficiency, they said.
"Nurses will have to say 'Oh sorry Mr Smith, I'll be there to assist you to the bathroom in a few minutes, I just have to empty this linen bag, make this bed for the new admission, and hand out a few more patients' medication'.
"By the time the nurse is done, the patient will either be in pain, soiled the bed, or tried to mobilise by himself, risking a fall."
Another worker said some staff cried upon hearing the news, and were already beginning to stress about paying their mortgages and caring for their children.
"It's very shocking for all of us, and already we can't focus on our work now."
The team considered themselves front-line staff so they thought they were safe, he said.
"They [the government] assured us that they won't cut the front-line workers, so we were very assured and we kept our role.
"We had many opportunities to go to... other fields, but we didn't, because... they assured us."
E Tū union is supporting the affected staff, and director Mat Danaher said they had proven their worth.
"This role was actually being looked at by other districts across the country before the cuts were announced," he said.
"We were hoping to emulate it because it's worked so successfully to free other staff up to do what they're meant to do, to provide clinical support to to patients."
The government had claimed to protect front line staff, but it was hard to know exactly what that meant, said Danaher.
"We would argue that these are essential workers because without them it's a lot harder for those clinical staff to do their jobs essentially, so it's a (sic) extremely risky situation."
Danaher hopes Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora will that into account in considering whether or not the jobs would go.
Health New Zealand deputy chief executive for the Northern region Mark Shepherd told Morning Report that post-Covid there were 1800 nursing vacancies in Northland and Auckland, but that had now been resolved.
"A number of years ago we did have a nursing shortage post-Covid," he said.
"A model was put in in Auckland to provide untrained support staff to provide direct support for patients and to work with the nurses to try and bridge that gap."
Because more nurses had been recruited, the role was no longer needed and was being reviewed. There was potential for the staff to lose their jobs, he said.
Danaher told Morning Report the country may be in a post-Covid period, but there was growing pressure on the health service with an increasing population.
The reality was nurses and health care assistants were massively overstretched, and if this group of workers was lost it would make things worse, he said.
A doctor who works at the Greenlane Clinical Centre said they wanted more clarity around how any possible cuts to frontline support worker roles might impact workflow.
The doctor, who did not want to be named, said they were concerned that nurses maybe asked to do some of these jobs, which would be outside the scope of their work.
"You have to have supplies, if you run out of stock bandages, linen, that shouldn't be a job for patient facing, clinical healthcare professionals, and we rely on good supplies, clean rooms to have efficient patient throughput and good healthcare."
The doctor, who did not work in the emergency department, said ED might be worse impacted by cuts to frontline support roles.
The health agency said it was working with the affected staff to "identify potential options and solutions", which it would seek feedback on.
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