Members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation had threatened not to carry out any unsafe work if changes were not made in the inpatient mental health unit.
The ward was labelled by some members of the NZNO as being dangerous for staff and there was a fear a very serious event could happen on the ward.
The union wanted higher numbers of security personnel, all shifts to have the right mix of experience and youth, and an alarm system to be working at all times.
However, the NZNO confirmed yesterday industrial action did not go ahead.
"NZNO met Southland Hospital leadership today over concerns about the Inpatient Mental Health Unit," NZNO said in a statement yesterday.
"Members do not anticipate the need to cease work today. The effectiveness of the steps the unit is taking over the weekend will be reviewed next week."
Health New Zealand southern group director of operations Craig Ashton said, in a statement, healthcare settings could be challenging environments where patients could be impaired due to multiple possible causes including delirium, pain, medication side effects and many other conditions, resulting in unpredictable behaviour.
"We cannot prevent all these issues from occurring but have robust processes in place to manage them — minimising the risk of harm to staff and preventing further escalation," he said.
HNZ remained committed to supporting a safe working environment for its staff and patients and was continuing to work hard to address safety concerns related to the Southland Inpatient Mental Health Unit.
A replacement duress alarm system had recently been installed at the unit that would better meet the needs of staff. The new alarms were an important part of health and safety infrastructure to ensure staff were safe at work, Mr Ashton said.
The alarm system had been briefly affected by a network-wide Southland Hospital outage.
"Southland Hospital security continues to provide additional support to assist in keeping the unit safe for everyone. They have been a constant presence on the unit during this period of high demand," he said.
HNZ had a meeting planned with the NZNO and staff early next week to review recent events and its responses to those events.
