Hospitals across the country are resorting to cash rewards to entice staff to pick up extra night shifts as they battle with severe staffing shortages amid the Omicron outbreak. 

It comes after the Herald last week revealed Auckland-metro District Health Boards offering nurses and midwives a $500 bonus for every night shift they worked, with one nurse saying it was leaving them feeling exhausted and was potentially jeopardising patient care. 

Today, 960 people were fighting the virus in hospital including 31 patients in intensive care. 

Middlemore continued to have the greatest number of Covid-positive patients (217), followed by Auckland (201) and Waitemata (158). 

The remaining cases were in Northland (23), Waikato (85), Bay of Plenty (38), Lakes (12), Tairāwhiti (4), Hawke's Bay (39), Taranaki (11), Whanganui (6), MidCentral (21), Hutt Valley (15), Capital and Coast (40), Wairarapa (5), Nelson Marlborough (12), Canterbury (51), South Canterbury (3) and Southern (19) hospitals. 

Northland District Health Board this afternoon confirmed they too were handing out the $500 bonuses, saying additional remuneration arrangements had been agreed nationally. 

The Ministry of Health has been approached for comment. 

Staff entitled to the allowances were those under the multi-employer collective agreement which included nurses, midwives and other support staff. 

Ordinarily, a nurse would earn between $220 to $320 a shift, depending on length of service and skills. A charge nurse or a specialist nurse could earn $320 to $520 a shift. They all receive an additional 25 per cent after 6pm and 50 per cent more for weekends. 

"We want to ensure that all staff supporting our Covid response are appropriately rewarded for night shifts, on-call and any hours worked above their contracted hours," Northland DHB's general manager of planning integration people and performance John Wansbone said. 

He said the cash rewards recognised the increased demand for staffing during the current phase of Omicron, and were provided to ensure they were able to safely fill all rosters. 

At Northland DHB, the enhanced payments for night shifts, overtime and on-call applied from Saturday March 19 to Friday April 1. 

"We will review the situation in the week beginning 28 March [...] The allowance has helped us fill night shift rosters," Wansbone said. 

However, a nurse at North Shore Hospital said Waitemata had stopped the bonuses on Monday morning which she felt was unfair given Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs were still offering them. 

An Auckland DHB spokeswoman confirmed at this stage, they were planning for the additional remuneration for staff working night shifts and overtime to be extended until 6.59am on Monday March 28. 

"We are reviewing it daily," she said. 

Night shifts started at 11pm and finished at 7am. 

A spokeswoman at Counties Manukau DHB confirmed they too extended the rewards until Monday March 28. 

"This decision has been taken to maintain minimum service delivery as it is anticipated that the DHB will continue to face staffing challenges until [then]; this is due to the impact of Covid-19 on the community and our staff," she said. 

One nurse who didn't want to be identified told the Herald last week there had been some frustration over the lack of fairness. 

"It was not equitable to all as it was just night shift and overtime day shifts that qualified. People are falling over each other to pick up extra shifts now. We all work hard, we are all exhausted, but only some get the payment," the nurse who worked at Waitematā DHB said. 

Meanwhile, last week the Herald also reported that hundreds of hospital staff off sick, executive leadership teams had been forced to work in emergency departments, making beds, answering call-bells and clearing empty linen ships. 

Today, there were 20,087 new community cases of Covid-19 and a further 11 Covid-related deaths. This brought New Zealand's toll of publicly reported deaths to 210 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths to nine. 

One of the people whose death was reported today was in their 30s, one person was in their 60s, one in their 70s, four in their 80s and four in their 90s. 

Of the 11 people who have died, two are from Northland, five are from the Auckland region, one is from Bay of Plenty and three from the Wellington region. 

"This is a very sad time for whānau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them at this time," the ministry said. 

- by Emma Russell, NZ Herald