ROBYN EDIE/STUFF

A New Zealand Council of Trade report suggests the Southern DHB's budget allocation is short by over $7m this year.

Nurses at Southland Hospital feel like they are "working in a factory", going without breaks and struggling to find equipment that works, a union says. 

A New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) report claims the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) is underfunded by more than $7 million this year. The CTU assessment believed the Health Budget shortfall to be $215m nationwide. 

The figures come from a comparison between the 2017 Government Budget and a CTU pre-Budget analysis, which made several assumptions including 2.5 per cent increases on last year to account for the growing and aging population. 

New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) president Grant Brookes said the organisation assessment suggested Budget 2018 needed to add $2 billion more to health to "deliver what New Zealanders and the health workforce need to be running safely and effectively" while keeping up with population need.

READ MORE: 
* Frustration, disappointment over health funding in Budget 2017
* Budget 2017: Health funding to record levels with $1.7b injection to DHBs
* Most people believe the government is failing in providing mental health care - survey

He said SDHB nurses had told him they were "going without breaks, day after day and often spend a long time just looking for equipment that works".

"They feel more like they're working in a factory, pushing patients through as fast as possible, rather than caring for people in a hospital."

Brookes said there were not enough casual nurses available to fill the gaps when nurses were sick.

He said the lack of health spending, combined with the lack of investment in the workforce, could be the tipping point that triggered people in an aging nurse workforce to walk away from the profession.

"As a mental health nurse I am particularly concerned that the Government has little vision for helping communities with their population's mental health care need."

The NZNO wrote an open letter to voters encouraging them to make health funding their "first priority" this election year. 

Frustrated healthcare workers and patients alike, criticised the Health Budget when it was released. They said it would not go far enough in addressing concerns about overworked staff, access to mental health treatment and access to new medicines. 

In June, a budget allocation blunder was announced. Fourteen District Health Boards (DHBs) were given too much money and would have to give up some of their funding to even out six DHBs that were short-changed.

The SDHB was one of the worst affected in the mix-up, losing $5m from their allocation. The Canterbury District Health Board, which is at loggerheads with the Ministry of Health over funding, will lose $2.69m. Only Counties-Manakau DHB had a bigger allocation reduction. 

At the time, SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said because in the initial budget the DHB was over-funded, it planned to slightly reduce its funding growth over the next three years to compensate.

On Sunday, Fleming said he had not yet seen the CTU assessment and the calculations made to reach the $7 million deficit figure, so could not speak to its accuracy.

With regards to Brookes' comments on nurses being denied breaks and having sufficient equipment, Fleming said there was pressure to keep up with demand.

There was a significant amount of money being spent in an ongoing process replace old equipment, he said. 

"It's always a challenge in a complex environment, and we're always trying to improve that environment." 

"We're trying to align our nursing resources to where the demand is but we're still making improvements.

"I would imagine when the hospital is under pressure people would indeed miss breaks."

Fleming said while improvements could be made, hospitals would always have to deal with those issues to some degree. 

"Hospitals will always have pressure – this weekend has been particularly busy for Southland Hospital in acute surgery for instance.

"It's something we strive for and try to make sure our staff get appropriate breaks and time off. 

"I'm quite sure the NZNO is making these particular statements at the moment, as they are in the middle of their industrial negotiations nationally – so this is an appropriate time to raise those issues." 

 - Stuff