The Ministry of Health on the 14th February 2022 launched a $1 million fund to help former nurses return to the healthcare sector, to focus on growing the workforce as pressures from COVID-19 continue.
The Ministry’s Chief Nursing Officer welcomed the launch of the support fund which is to help nurses who are not currently practising to return to a nursing role, to meet increased demand, support safe staffing, and improve access to care.
Nurses are one of the cornerstones of the health and disability system and we need more across all areas of the health and disability system in New Zealand. We need to grow the workforce to help meet demand and to ensure these nurses are experienced and skilled.
Here we have a Ministry that doesn’t have enough qualified staff to provide an adequate level of care without slashing services such as community care; midwifery; etc., yet this government is pushing on with its ludicrous fixation with the Covid mandates which have cost many staff to lose their employment.
If the Government is waiting for the Omicron peak to drop off and the health system to also be coping, they could be waiting till the end of winter for that to happen.
When Ardern was recently asked for a realistic assessment of when mandates might lift given the potential overwhelming of the hospital system for some months, she stated that the health system’s ability to cope was “more relevant for the movements through the traffic light system than it is necessarily for changes like vaccination passes’’.
This fixation with the mandates is also affecting public services across the board such as; ambulance services, Police, Fire, Armed services etc even though the mandates are of very little benefit under the Omicron variant and also given that we have now over 95% of the population being vaccinated.
We now have very high levels of vaccination in the general population yet we still have a rapidly increasing spread of the Covid 19, Omicron variant. The majority of those being infected currently are already vaccinated which in itself proves the inefficiency of the mandates in stopping the spread of the omicron variant
It is criminal to have highly trained qualified personnel being prevented from working (against their rights under the New Zealand Bill of Rights) because they do not come within the mandates rules.
Our Prime Minister has already stated that the mandates will be removed soon, so why is she not removing them now and allowing the health service amongst others; make use of the highly trained and qualified staff that have been forced to resign.
She can find $460million to revamp the Health system so that we give power of veto over the whole budget to Maori, yet she is slashing services because of a lack of staff and funding.
She can talk of spending $15billion on a rapid rail system around Auckland (that will more than likely double in cost by the time it is completed); waste $55million on a ridiculously expensive ($785million) cycle bridge across Auckland Harbour which was cancelled; Spend $55million plus on a Public Interest Journalism Fund which is nothing more than a propaganda tool for her governments interpretation of co-governance and many other excesses.
This government has failed in every major campaign promise they have ever made on the run up to elections and they are now failing the healthcare system in New Zealand as well.
The unfortunate thing about that is that it may cost new Zealanders their lives.
The health system is asking nurses and doctors to work longer hours to take up the slack from this letting go of staff due to non-compliance with the mandates yet there is no offer of extra remuneration.
How long will it be before the whole health system is so far broken we will not be able to even provide a third world level of care?
Ms Ardern is fixated on enforcing her mandates yet here we are with a very high level of vaccination now and a rapidly increasing spread of the Omicron variant. The majority of those being infected currently are already vaccinated which in itself proves the inefficiency of the mandates in stopping the spread of the omicron variant so therefore it makes sense to remove the mandates a.s.a.p. and let the qualified staff return to work and begin to provide a good level of care to those infected.
In light of the requirements of sections 10 & 11 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights, enforcement of the Mandates could be seen as a criminal act and as such should be stopped immediately particularly in light of their abject failure in stopping the spread of Omicron, whether people are vaccinated or not vaccinated.
The mandates are just another undemocratic action that may lead to the destruction of New Zealand’s Health system.
Andy Loader