By Registered Nurse and delegate Ben Rogers as part of the Shout Out campaign

As a Registered Nurse working in the theatre and recovery environment I frequently see patients who having long ordeals before they have had the opportunity for their surgery. I became a nurse because I get great joy from the process of healing and recovery – getting patients back to their work and their families in as good shape as possible, no matter what has happened. But often, patients will have to fight ACC just to get the need for their surgery recognized. Or, they have surgery delayed as there was simply not enough staff to run all the planned operating theatres that day. Sometimes acutely injured patients wait without food on ‘nil by mouth’ only to have their surgery cancelled and rescheduled for the next day, or are discharged too soon to make space for the next person who will go through exactly the same thing. Rinse and repeat.

One case that stuck with me was a patient who had their surgery late in the day. They had been given local anaesthetic to numb the area and reduce their pain, which normally wears off early in the morning. It was late in the day so there were no pharmacies open nearby open to collect the strong pain relief they would likely need when the local anaesthetic wore off. Ideally they would have stayed in hospital overnight, and then been discharged the next morning, however the hospital was simply too full and there was a lot of pressure to minimize incoming patients. This patient did go home that day. I slept poorly that night, worried that this patient who was in my care would now be in excruciating pain.

For me, health under-funding leads to full wards of people stuck in limbo, frustrated, hungry and suffering; and staff such as myself stressed and losing sleep, from being not able to give the quality of care the people of New Zealand deserve. This is why I feel so strongly that health should be funded to meet the health needs of New Zealand, so we can discharge people in the state that they deserve from our publicly funded health system.