Work increase for nurses

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 26

Work increase for nurses

Nursing staff numbers have not kept pace with big j increases in the workload in I hospitals run by the North | Canterbury Hospital Board, (according to the Nurses’ 1 Society. The national director of the societv (Mr D. Wills) said that one of the key findings of a recent survey showed that although nursing staff numbers had increased from December 1975 to March ’ 1980, the workload had increased at a far greater rate. in the last year, when I staffing had been under pressure with shortages and budgetary problems, the workload had continued to rise, Mr Wills said. He said that 6.8 per cent more patients were treated at Princess Margaret Hospital than in the. previous year, 5.9 per cent more at Christchurch Women's, 6.2 per cent at Christchurch, and 14.7 per cent at Burwood. This meant that 700 more inpatients were treated at Princess Margaret each year, 600 more at Burwood, and 1000 more at Christchurch Hospital. Allowing for differences in size on a proportional basis, North Canterbury Hospital Board institutions had about 15 per cent fewer general staff .numbers than Auckland and almost twice the

number of aids, said Mr Wills. ihe failure to improve on phe qualified to non-qualified ■ ratio was out of line with j most other boards, where, in i spite of pressure on funds and the loss of staff overseas, gains had been made. “Clinically, services' have been more effectively used, but staff members have not been boosted to compensate adequately, placing staff under pressure,” said Mr i Wills. ' A report, on nursing problems in all main hospitals I run by the board, will be discussed at a meeting of the hoard’s health services committee on September 10. This has been prepared by a committee chaired by the board’s principal nursing officer, Miss Brenda Brankin. Until this is discussed, board officers prefer not to comment on the findings of the society’s survey.