Reductions in non-acute mental health services offered by Otago District Health Board will start today, but some staff are unhappy with consultation over changes.
From today, eight beds in the rehabilitation ward at Wakari Hospital will close temporarily as the board tries to cope with a severe shortage of mental health nurses and unusually high demand for acute services which have had its wards overflowing.
Dunedin Hospital's community day programme, which has also been under threat of temporary closure, will remain open for the next two weeks when management will evaluate the effectiveness of its contingency planning, board group manager of mental health and community services Elaine Chisnall said last week.
The bed closures in Wakari's's ward 11 will reduce the number available there to 16.
Most of the eight beds to be closed were not occupied and the action would free up some registered nurses to provide cover in the stretched acute wards - 9B at Wakari and 1A at Dunedin.
Staff had mixed reactions to the proposals, but they understood why the changes were being made, she said.
Those nurses who would be transferring into acute areas would receive orientation and support from clinical nurse specialists.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Otago organiser Lorraine Lobb said her members had expressed concerns about the way consultation had taken place over the changes and she would be meeting them today to discuss these issues.
While making the changes suggested might have seemed relatively easy, it was proving to be a ‘‘ bit of a nightmare'' and there was a lot of anxiety among staff.
The effects would be wider than just hospital staff, with psychiatric district nurses having to do evening shifts which would mean changes to their out-ofwork lives.
It was important that the changes did not result in more people leaving the service.
Public Service Association organiser Mark Ryan said there was some hope that the impact on the day programme could be averted.
Members remained pessimistic about the future provision of adult mental health services.
The union's assertion that the situation would not be resolved in the longterm until staff were offered internationally competitive rates and conditions had drawn a guarded response and would be pursued further.
Ms Chisnall said staff were working through several strategies with groups outside the hospital, including seeking additional respite beds for people who might be having an acute mental health episode needing 24-hour supervision rather than hospital care.
The board already buys acute care from Ashburn Clinic and has had beds made available in Southland.
It would be having further discussions with Southland's mental health services to see how else they could help.
Mrs Chisnall said if, after two weeks, it was found that these measures had worked to ease the pressure then it was possible a different decision could be made about the closure of the day programmes.
Long-time mental health services campaigner Jim Crowe said the public needed to get pro-active about mental health services.
Training of staff, delivering services planned but held up because of concern over their long-term funding, and looking at why people left the service were some of the issues which needed to be addressed, he said.
