Health staff affected by border restrictions

Nelson Marlborough Health is scrambling to fill roles as international candidates are having to wait up to 12 months to come into the country in a backlog that could affect the system for years to come.

Border restrictions have highlighted the dependence that Nelson Marlborough Health has on staff from overseas.

“I don’t think any of us realised how important staff from overseas are to keeping things going,” says health board chief executive Lexie O’Shea.

Visa restrictions and the unavailability of space in MIQ have meant start dates for those employed by the health board can be up to 12 months from the date of appointment.

Nelson Marlborough Health chair Jenny Black has joined other South Island chairs to raise concerns with the Minister of Health regarding the role of immigration in recruiting international candidates.

There is uncertainty over whether health board staff will go on the exemption list, but they are hoping there will be some movement for the health force.

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director, Sarah Dalton, says New Zealand is among the countries most reliant on overseas trained doctors anywhere in the OECD.

“More than 40 per cent of our senior medical workforce trained in another part of the world and then chose to work in New Zealand,” she says.

Lexie says human resource is one of the challenges with moving ahead with elective work.

“The same team manages the acute and elective areas.”

Those operating in private facilities are also the same staff working at the hospital.
Lexie says that cumulative effects of changing alert levels, and the necessary constraints these place on planned care, have had backlog build on backlog.

“We could have a backlog for years to come,” says Jenny Black.

However, pandemic preparedness is continually being reviewed.

Lexie says there has been an increase in hospital intensive care bed capacity since the 2020 outbreak through additional ventilators and staff training.

“We now have 18 ventilators with staff trained for intensive care and high dependency across Nelson and Wairau hospitals.”