More than 100 staff have been stood down at the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board including 33 nurses.
The Covid-19 vaccine mandate came into effect for healthcare workers and teachers on Tuesday, meaning that staff must have had their first vaccination by 11.59pm Monday, and be fully vaccinated by the start of January.
33 nurses and 77 other staff remained unvaccinated after the deadline and had been stood down as at 9am Wednesday morning.
Nelson Marlborough along with Taranaki, West Coast and Northland DHBs have the highest per cent of unvaccinated staff at four per cent.
Lead DHB ce Rosemary Clements says DHBs have actively encouraged all staff to become vaccinated throughout this year and have been pleased with the high vaccination rates achieved across the DHB total staff of approximately 80,000.
Of the 80,000 staff, 1309 have been stood down across the country.
Rosemary says DHBs are continuing to consult with those unvaccinated staff members who are stood down to answer any questions they might have, discuss other options such as redeployment, support them through the process and encourage them to consider vaccination.
If staff choose to be vaccinated while they are stood down, they will be able to return to the DHB.
“We have engaged and agreed with the health sector unions on the processes we are following.”
She says service delivery impacts will vary between DHBs and mitigations are in place where needed to minimise any impact to services.
These include careful staff rostering, and close monitoring of any areas where there may be some staff shortage.
“Our absolute focus is on ensuring continuity of patient care.”
Rosemary says DHBs will be in a position early next week to provide an update on the numbers of staff who will be leaving the DHBs due to their unvaccinated status.
