Starship Hospital's cancer ward three months away from full staff after chemotherapy delays

Health NZ says it will be three months before Starship Hospital's cancer ward is fully staffed.It said 20 cycles of chemotherapy had been delayed over the past four months due to a lack of staff, but noted that delays never exceeded a week."For context, we deliver over that period around 500 to 600 cycles of chemotherapy," Health NZ's director of operations for Auckland Dr Mike Shepherd told Checkpoint.Two bone marrow transplants had been delayed, and two patients from outside Auckland had been transferred to Christchurch.The Nurses Organisation said nurses had long been concerned about the lack of staff in Starship's cancer ward."This has been signalled by nurses for a long time, there should have been a lot more energy put into workforce recruitment, retention and supporting and training nurses into this specialised area," NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said."There is no excuse for this under-resourcing of a really vulnerable service."She said staffing data it obtained under the Official Information Act showed that in August, 86 percent of the shifts in Starship's oncology ward were below target staffing levels.Shepherd confirmed the figure, but noted that this had decreased to 73 percent in September and to 33 percent in the first two weeks of October.Health NZ"We are really pleased to say we have been recruiting well. We have four new staff started and a further seven arriving over the next three months or so and I think that'll get us up to full complement and that'll be great for our team," Shepherd said."We will continue to use nursing staff across the rest of the organisation to complement the nurses we have in that ward."The Nurses Organisation said it was only given data up to the end of August.The number of "shifts below target" had steadily risen since January, when 18 percent of shifts were understaffed, up to 53 percent in July, before spiking in August.Nuku said the short staffing was "deliberate.""This is equivalent to 6 full-time nurses short in the haematology and oncology inpatient ward for August."Tertiary providers were recently told to limit nursing enrolments to 2025 levels, because there are not enough student placement spots available in hospitals.Nurse educators told RNZ on Wednesday the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) directive makes no sense as pressure on the workforce builds.Tertiary Education Commission chief executive Tim Fowler said told Morning Report on Thursday the limit would mean around 700 less enrolments.He said enrolments in nursing have gone up by 30 percent in the last six years - from about 8000 to just over 11,000.