Staffing vacancies are not stopping the Ashburton Hospital from providing “all of its services”.
Te Whatu Ora, Canterbury executive director of nursing, Becky Hickmott, said the hospital currently has 14.4 full-time equivalent (FTE) nursing vacancies it is looking to fill out of its 167 nursing roles at the hospital.
“While we have had some staff movement, our vacancy numbers are higher because we have had an additional 9.3FTE approved for the Hospital,” Hickmott said.
“We are actively recruiting into all vacancies and we have three new graduate nurses starting shortly which will reduce our vacancies to 11.4FTE.”
In February, the hospital had 10.6 FTE vacancies and it was reshuffling staff and reviewing services to cope with demand as the Omicron wave started to sweep through the region.
By June, a number of the positions were filled leaving just 4.8 FTE vacancies to be filled but five months later that number has risen to 11.4 – around 6 per cent of the nursing staff.
Hickmott said all services in Ashburton are running despite the vacancies in Ashburton and a health system that is under pressure.
“Seasonal pressures have impacted patient flow throughout our health system, from general practice through to Emergency Departments.
“We are managing our vacancies by asking staff to be deployed where they are needed and asking staff to work additional shifts where possible.
“Our staff have worked really hard this year in a challenging environment, we are working hard to support their wellbeing and to ensure our team have some time out to re-charge and take a break over the coming months.”
Adding to the challenge has been the ongoing impacts of Covid, with active still circulating in the community.
The Ministry of Health reported 2970 new cases in the region in the last week, and do not break case numbers down to a district level.
While there has been a rise in Covid case numbers in Canterbury, Hickmott said, “we are still talking about small numbers”.
“We are transitioning into an endemic state, learning to live with Covid-19 in our communities, and we are stepping down our operations centre.”

• By Jonathan Leask