1 November 2016
Too stretched to train more specialist nurses
Gaining more specialist nurses in public hospital eye clinics is crucial to clearing the backlog of southern patients
waiting for appointments and to saving eyesight. Southern nurses are reporting they don’t have the capacity to train new
staff while they are stretched to the limit with current demands. NZNO has alerted DHB management about this issue for
two years.
NZNO Industrial Adviser Lesley Harry says NZNO members from Canterbury and Southern DHB are saying they have raised this
issue and while some improvements have been made to cope, there is fundamentally not enough money going into eye
services.
“Clearly there are not enough specialist nurses to assist the clinical specialists. It’s all very well to say we need
more but evidently there is just no budget for it. If this is the tip of the iceberg, it is frightening to think that
more people will lose their eyesight because they just had to wait too long be treated by our public health service,”
Lesley Harry said.
“Southern and Canterbury have been grappling and struggling with this problem and sadly to the shame of the health
funders, eyesight is being lost in the meantime. Nurses have been advocating for patients to get faster treatment for
nearly two years.
“The Government must wake up to what the aging population and rising number of people presenting with diabetes means for
funding of specialist services.
“Making clinicians march to the beat of a drum that is out of step with reality on the ground is costing New Zealanders
there much cherished sight,” she said.
ends