Staff shortages and consistently overflowing wards for acute mental health patients are forcing the Otago District Health Board to cut back its services to non-acute patients.
Board group manager of mental health and community services Elaine Chisnall said a quarter of the acute wards' nursing positions were vacant and there was more than 100% occupancy.
Normally, demand for acute service fluctuated, but occupancy had been consistently high for the past nine months. The reasons for this were unclear, but Ms Chisnall emphasised that anybody who needed acute mental health care would be able to receive that care.
(The board has 33 acute and intensive care beds in wards 9B Wakari Hospital and 1A Dunedin Hospital.)
That, combined with the number of nursing vacancies increasing faster than the board could fill them during the past six months meant the board had to develop plans to cope.
Plans included reducing services, such as day services, for non-acute out-patients at Dunedin and Wakari hospitals.
The board would also investigate whether other providers could care for non-acute patients, if more people could be treated or supported by staff and others in the community, and whether the Southland board could provide any help.
These options were still being explored, in conjunction with staff and unions, and it was too early to give any detail about what could be offered.
One possibility was that there might be some reduction in the 24 beds for long-term rehabilitation at Ward 11 in Wakari Hospital.
The board would also continue its recruitment drive and the development of a five-year retention and recruitment strategy.
The board attracted only six new graduate nurses to the mental health area this year, instead of an expected 12. About six registered nurses would start work in the acute wards mid-year, which would still leave three vacancies in the acute wards if no staff resigned in the meantime.
Ms Chisnall said the board was very aware of the pressure staff were under and was doing all it could to support staff.
‘‘We are extremely grateful to our staff for their ongoing dedication under such pressure,'' Ms Chisnall said.
Board chairman Richard Thomson said while the board was not alone in facing shortages in mental health staffing, it had been more adversely affected than some other boards because it had more services in place.
New services planned, but over which there were outstanding ongoing funding issues, would also face recruitment problems, he said.
