Source: Radio New Zealand
Napier Health has a nurse-provided overnight urgent care service. Google Maps / Screenshot
An overnight urgent care provider in Hawke’s Bay was closed last night and for a number of other days in January due to staffing issues.
The service was closed on Sunday, as well as from New Year’s Day to January 4.
The same reason caused it to close for six nights in December and four nights in November.
The Health Minister confirmed in March 2025 the government would invest in the overnight urgent care service for Napier.
- Have you been affected? Contact iwitness@rnz.co.nz
The service was a nurse-provided overnight urgent care service at Napier Health, run through Health New Zealand, operating between 8pm and 8am, seven days a week. It was put in place following the closure of Napier Hospital in 1998.
Health New Zealand had proposed removing the overnight urgent care service and replacing it with a telehealth option, but Simeon Brown announced in March that it would be retained following consultation.
The proposal had sparked community backlash, and a protest had been planned, according to Hawke’s Bay Today.
In a report leaked to Hawke’s Bay Today in January 2025, Health New Zealand wrote workforce shortages have made it “increasingly difficult” to keep these services fully staffed, “resulting in the service sporadically closing early”.
Napier MP Katie Nimon said there had been ongoing issues due to a low number of staff.
“And then, as soon as you have an unplanned absence, which happens in any organisation, you know, one staff member not being able to do a shift that they were already going to be doing, it means that the overnight service is forced to close,” she said.
“There’s no backup plan.”
Nimon understood it had closed about once a fortnight throughout 2025.
The community had to travel 15 kilometres to the hospital in Hastings, or use the telehealth service, she said.
She added Health New Zealand had been working hard to find an alternative, and had told her closure was the last option.
RNZ approached Health New Zealand for response.
Nimon said she had also been working with Simeon Brown and the Ministry of Health to find a long-term solution.
“Sometimes these things are really unavoidable, and you can’t double your staffing just in case of emergencies, but we need to make sure these services are resilient.”
Previously, Brown said Health New Zealand would consider contracting the service back to a private provider.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
