Shaun Gray<\/a> and Erica Hume was staffing levels.<\/p>\nThe coroner found under staffing was putting too much pressure on those on duty at the old ward.<\/p>\n
Ricky Gray said although the physical environment had changed since the opening of the new unit, the staffing situation had not.<\/p>\n
“The most concerning thing for us really is it’s not just short-staffing alone. As demonstrated in the external reviews and the coronial findings from Shaun’s death, the issue becomes bigger than just numbers on the roster.<\/p>\n
“I think with the sustained pressures that they’re all under, the culture in the workplace is now like a cancer. People are becoming exhausted, desensitised.”<\/p>\n
Full staffing ‘vital’<\/p>\n
The new ward has a different layout and nurses’ desks are scattered throughout.<\/p>\n
Ricky Gray said because of such changes, the move into the unit should have happened gradually to ease stress.<\/p>\n
Erica Hume’s mother Carey agreed, likening the transition to moving house.<\/p>\n
“If you put that into a mental health-ward context, you’ve got staff unfamiliar even though they’ve had training in there, new patients coming in who don’t know what’s going on or how things work,” Carey Hume said.<\/p>\n
“They’re stressed because of that. They’re stressed and in there because they aren’t well and they need some help to get back to being in full health.”<\/p>\n
Raw figures didn’t always include the context behind incidents, she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Erica](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JNDXM2_Erica_Hume_in_2013_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nErica Hume.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Supplied\n<\/p>\n
“We find the staff are encouraged to report every minor [incident], but they don’t report the circumstances that led to an event.<\/p>\n
“That’s quite often quite telling because that’s the patient’s perspective of it as well.”<\/p>\n
Carey Hume was concerned about short staffing.<\/p>\n
“Our feedback that we gave them was that we stressed the hospital design, the ward layout and operating model, was heavily reliant on staff presence.<\/p>\n
“Therefore it was vital all shifts were fully staffed.”<\/p>\n
‘Slight increase in aggression’ – Health NZ<\/p>\n
Health NZ interim group director of operations MidCentral Katherine Fraser-Chapple said there had been a slight increase in instances of aggression towards staff for a range of reasons, including highly unwell patients and adjustments to the new environment.<\/p>\n
“While the recent spike has understandably heightened concern, overall incident patterns remain within the range we typically see across a 12-month period.<\/p>\n
“We have strongly encouraged staff to report all incidents, including lower-level behaviours such as verbal abuse, to ensure we have a complete picture of risk.”<\/p>\n
Since February, 14 staff had suffered injuries requiring time off work. Of those 10 had returned.<\/p>\n
“The incidents recorded since February vary widely, from verbal threats and verbal abuse through to physical contact, pushing, and more serious assaults such as punching.”<\/p>\n
Health NZ had a violence and aggression steering group overseeing “system-wide improvements”, while the new ward had a violence minimisation working group, led by the charge nurse.<\/p>\n
Health NZ said its figures about assaults referred to the new ward only, and didn’t include the geriatric ward.<\/p>\n
Recruitment remained a focus, Fraser-Chapple said, but Health NZ didn’t say how many vacancies there were.<\/p>\n
On Friday, New Zealand Nurses Organisation publication Kaitiaki reported the new ward had vaccines for 20 full-time equivalent workers.<\/p>\n
Twice the floor space, no increase in staff<\/p>\n
Nurses Organisation delegate and Wellington-based mental health nurse Grant Brookes said the rise in assaults could relate to staffing levels.<\/p>\n
![\"Grant](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4NAE6ZL_074A8309_18694.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nNurses Organisation delegate and Wellington-based mental health nurse Grant Brookes.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Rebekah Parsons-King\n<\/p>\n
“The new unit is more than twice the floor space of the old unit and staffing numbers haven’t been increased.<\/p>\n
“This is one possible factor for the spoke in assaults with the opening of the new unit.”<\/p>\n
It had a flow-on effect.<\/p>\n
“If a whai ora [patient] becomes distressed in one part of the building, it takes a lot longer for staff to respond to that.<\/p>\n
“It also means they won’t necessarily have multiple staff responding when it’s needed. Distress can quickly escalate in this new, bigger space in a way that it didn’t in the smaller one.”<\/p>\n
Assaults on healthcare workers were increasing across the country, particularly in mental health wards and emergency departments, Brookes said.<\/p>\n
Where to get help:<\/p>\n
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.<\/b><\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Palmerston North Hospital’s new mental health ward, Ng\u0101 Wai Ng\u0101ro. Photo: RNZ \/ Jimmy Ellingham Content warning: This…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[36],"tags":[5157,3240,210,517,50,5158,5156,5154,5155,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-861719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Shaun](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4LSF1UH_thumbnail_IMG_4094_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n