An announcement of 380 additional nurses, midwives and health care assistants for hospitals around the country at the end of winter is too little too late, NZNO says.
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says chief nurse Nadine Gray’s comments this morning that Te Whatu Ora has listened to nurses rings hollow.
"It’s a shame they have only decided to listen now. These new health workers are an acknowledgement by Te Whatu Ora of the immense pressure our nurses, midwives and health care assistants have been under.
"They have been warning Te Whatu Ora for two years that chronic and deliberate short staffing is putting their patients at risk.
"In the meantime, nurses have struggled through the worst influenza outbreak in a decade, overcrowding in our hospitals and hours - and sometimes days - long waits in emergency departments. It should not have come to this.
"But any additional health care workers is good news for patients."
Te Whatu Ora and the Coalition Government continue to claim they have hired 2100 more nurses, but Health Minister Simeon Brown has admitted just 54 new FTE nurses have been added to the hospitals since they came to office, Kerri Nuku says.
"This is partly because of a Government-imposed recruitment freeze designed to save millions of dollars which kept 1300 nursing roles vacant over the past two years.
"NZNO calls on Te Whatu Ora to fast track the hiring of this additional staff. Te Whatu Ora has been deliberately slowing down recruitment with the use of regional panels to approve vacancies. This has meant it can take up to six months in high-needs, understaffed wards such as neonatal units to bring new staff on.
"NZNO hopes today’s announcement means these panels will no longer be used to slow down recruitment, and these nurses, midwives and health care assistants will be on the floor at our hospitals as soon as possible," she says.
"Te Whatu Ora has said this an annual calculation and decision, so it is surprising they called a media conference to announce business as usual."
NZNO supports nurse-to-patient ratios, which is why NZNO fought to have methodology included in our most recent collective agreement, Kerri Nuku says, and this work is now underway.