Waitematā DHB deputy boss apologises to nurses over Covid-19 outbreak

Three nurses at Waitākere hospital likely contracted Covid-19 on a stressful day when a patient died and others were sick and confused, Waitematā DHB says.
A report has been released after an urgent review of three nurses who caught the disease while caring for St Margarets Rest Home patients at Waitākere Hospital.
Four more nurses later contracted the virus. 
The review has described ill-fitting personal protection equipment (PPE), nurses needing to remove it several times a day, and very stressful nursing situations.
The report gave no definitive answer to how the three nurses initially caught Covid-19, but Waitematā DHB's deputy chief executive Andrew Brant told Checkpoint the review has a strong hint of what happened.
"The patients had clinically deteriorated, and as result of that there was a lot of in-and-out of the rooms and that's where I think probably is the most likely, but that's not for us to determine, that's for public health to determine," he said. 
Dr Brant apologised to the nurses, saying better systems are needed.
The nurses themselves have been commended for providing exceptional care to the six residents from the St Margarets Rest Home, but the report paints a grim picture of the realities on the Waitakere Hospital ward, which was not prepared to deal with high-care needs patients with Covid-19.