Hospitals Coping Well After First Day Of Strike
- May
- 7
6:18 am Live Literature
Members of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) are striking over a pay dispute with the country’s District Health Boards.
“Everything has gone reasonably well. The hospitals are still quite full of acute patients but everything has gone according to plan,” District Health Boards national co-ordinator of contingency planning Anne Aitcheson said.
Capital and Coast DHB spokesman Michael Tull said a lack of major incidents around the country had helped.
“We don’t know what will happen overnight but certainly the first day shift coped well.”
A number of RDA members refused to strike and showed up for work today but Ms Aitcheson said their numbers had not been recorded.
They joined a long list of hospital staff working overtime to ensure patients received the care they needed.
“(It’s) not only doctors. A large number of hospital staff will work longer hours than normal.
“Nurses, managers, admin staff, therapists; it’s very much looking at how we can deliver services using people who are willing to do that work,” Ms Aitcheson said.
“Everybody is doing this for the benefit of patients who must be in hospital at this time. A hospital is not a place you choose to be so it’s good to know those staff are available.
“So we are obviously extremely grateful to all of the people who are involved and who are going beyond their normal call of duty.”
The available staff were deployed with a focus on keeping emergency departments and intensive care units running.
In addition, DHBs are reminding people to visit their GP if possible rather than placing unecessary strain on the hospitals.
“I guess our message is to keep emergency departments for emergencies, but if you are unwell we don’t want you to stay at home and get worse either,” Ms Aitcheson said.
That message was received better in some areas than others. While some hospitals were flat out, others reported a reduction in patient numbers with some even managing to see patients faster than normal.
To free up staff, many non-urgent procedures had been put off for the duration of the strike.
In reducing the workload hospitals ran the risk of creating a back-log of procedures it must then catch-up on.
“That’s something else we constantly monitor. For patients we have deferred, if there is a chance we can then give them that service then we would look to do that. So it’s very much a live process,” Ms Aitcheson said.
DHBs around the country sent out statements today thanking staff for their efforts and patients for their co-operation.
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