Nick Mills: We can't keep kicking the can down the road with health funding

EDITORIAL:

I know we continually talk on this programme about health. 

I know some of you must be sick of hearing me go on about it. 

I'm not going to do a big rant and rave, I'll be calm and collected so people start listening.  

But I'm not going to stop. Not when we're talking about people's lives. 

You've only got one life. 

And this morning, there's a number I want you to remember. 

182. 

Now let's put that in perspective.  

Let's put 182 people in one room.  

It would have to be a very big room.  

You wouldn't fit it in a classroom.  

It would have to be almost a school hall that you would put 182 people in.  

Then walk around and look at each one of their faces.  

Think about their families. Think about their children. Think about their grandchildren. Think about their parents if they're young.  

These are not just numbers on a spreadsheet.  

They're human beings and their lives lost.  

Now, the research examined more than 220,000 surgical admissions across 24 New Zealand public hospitals between 2022 and 2024. 

It found that around 45 percent of surgical ward shifts were understaffed against assessed nursing requirements. 

And for every one-nurse reduction on a shift, the adjusted odds of a patient dying within 90 days of surgery were 13 percent higher. 

That's an association, not proof that every one of those deaths was preventable.  

Health New Zealand disputes the study's conclusion about a direct link and says surgical nursing hours have since increased. 

But surely these findings demand some sort of answers. 

The researchers estimated that addressing the staffing shortfall they identified would require 141 additional full-time-equivalent nurses, costing around $18 million annually. 

Eighteen million dollars is alot of money. 

But we're talking about the possibility of saving lives. 

And this morning, I heard another report about patients being treated in corridors at Christchurch Hospital. 

Where the hell has our hospital system gone? 

And this morning I heard another horror story coming out of the corridors of Christchurch Hospital.  

Parallel parking people in the corridors. 

Staff getting called at 8 o'clock, which is the changeover of the shift.  

Where the hell has our hospital system gone?  

We've got nurses stretched, we've got patients waiting, we've got families wondering whether someone will be there for their loved one when they start deteriorating after a surgery. 

And remember, it's often a nurse who first spots that something is going wrong. 

So here's my question. 

In an election year, 7 weeks away form the day, why isn't patient safety at the very centre of the health debate? 

Forget the slogans. Forget the political point-scoring. 

I want to know whether our hospitals have enough nurses, on every shift, to keep patients alive. 

Is there anything in the world that's more important than your life or your life of your loved one?  

And if there's any credible possibility, any at all, of saving 182 lives a year, surely we owe those patients, those families a proper investigation and a proper plan. 

How much longer are we prepared to accept this? 

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