NZNO Backs Call For More Hospital Beds

Media Release:

NZNO Backs Call For More Hospital Beds

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) is welcoming comments from Ministry of Health who have suggested Auckland City Hospital expand its adult health service by more than half over the next six years after long struggling with overcrowding.

Chief Executive, Geoff Annals is “Pleased to hear that ‘officials’ have at last realised the folly of planning and building hospitals without good input from those who will work in them; frontline nurses, doctors and other health workers,”

“Hospitals are best designed with deliberate provision for excess bed capacity so the most valuable asset in any hospital, the staff who care for the patients who are in the beds, don’t waste time managing queues of patients and shuffling beds,”

“The first challenge now on Minister Ryall is to fulfil his promise to give frontline nurses and doctors a greater say by engaging them in the review of infrastructure capacity and planning he announced last week. The Safe Staffing/Healthy Workplaces model jointly developed by NZNO and DHBs will be an effective tool in this capacity review,”

“It is essential to understand that beds alone don’t make sick patients well. The physical provision of beds will do nothing unless the patients in those beds are cared for by the team of nurses, other health professionals and all the resources that make up a working hospital. The Minister’s second challenge is to ensure New Zealand has the health workforce it needs to care for her citizens today, tomorrow and for years to come,” said Geoff Annals, NZNO CEO

ENDS

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