Dunedin Hospital’s emergency department has lost four nursing staff members in recent weeks, but seven staff have been newly recruited to work in the department.
The four nurses, who collectively represented 2.5 full time equivalent positions, left for a variety of reasons — three left the Southern District Health Board, while one transferred elsewhere within the organisation.
"There is always a rate of turnover within the workforce," SDHB operations general manager Megan Boivin said.
"By comparison in the six months from January until June, eight nurses resigned across the district."
However, emergency departments in SDHB hospitals, particularly in Dunedin, have been under severe strain in recent months, and both doctors and nurses have raised concerns about staff morale and wellbeing.
Earlier this month its health and safety representative Anne Daniels said the department was "haemorrhaging staff" and could not recruit replacements.
"Staff are leaving because they can no longer emotionally, ethically or professionally work in the department."
Ms Daniels was so concerned with patient and staff safety issues that she lodged a provisional improvement notice (Pin) on the Dunedin Hospital ED, which required the SDHB to work with WorkSafe to address the concerns which led to the Pin within eight days.
Following that deadline passing, WorkSafe was considering the SDHB reaction when the Covid-19 Alert Level escalated back to 4.
Ms Boivin said that, excluding fixed-term and casual contracts, 150 nurses worked in southern emergency departments and just over 45 registered nurses worked in the Dunedin emergency department.
"We have recently recruited seven registered nurses, who have differing commencement dates over the next couple of months," Ms Boivin said.
"We are continuing seeking to recruit into this important workforce."
