Claims by National deputy leader Nicola Willis that 2300 more hospital nurses will be hired by the end of this year have been revealed by Te Whatu Ora as more smoke and mirrors on nursing numbers from the Government, NZNO says.
Nicola Willis told RNZ yesterday that 2300 nurses are being recruited "right now" and would be working in hospitals by Christmas.
However, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO President Anne Daniels says the numbers don’t stack up.
Te Whatu Ora chief nurse Nadine Gray told RNZ today that just over 300 nurses have been recently hired and are going through the recruitment process and 1800 graduates will be hired. Te Whatu Ora is currently advertising for another 300 odd nursing roles
"National is trying to dress business up as usual recruitment as a success story. With a current workforce to March 2026 of 29,458 FTE nursing positions, this is just replacing attrition, not growing the workforce. Nursing numbers have actually fallen by 120 FTE since March 2025.
"Te Whatu Ora has had a recruitment freeze. The Government has been keeping 1,300 nursing roles vacant over the past two years as a deliberate tactic to save millions of dollars," Anne Daniels says.
"Up to 90% of nursing graduates used to be hired in our hospitals but despite these vacancies, just 45% of registered nursing graduates were matched to supported-entry roles at Te Whatu Ora after mid-year final exams.
"The Government has promised to hire 1800 graduates before the end of the government financial year, which is 30 June 2027. Is Te Whatu Ora now promising to move this recruitment forward?
"National also continually claims to have hired 2,100 more nurses, but we now know just 54 new nursing FTE has been added to the hospitals since they came to office.
"Nicola Willis says nurse retention is important and legislated culturally-safe nurse to patient ratios will make that happen."
Anne Daniels says NZNO welcomes Labour’s policy to hire all nursing graduates, but it needs to turn around the third of students who drop out of training before completing their studies.
"Nursing students are living in cars and tents on their 12-week final placement. They are unable to support themselves for the three months they are doing full-time shift work and often away from their hometown and whānau support.
"If Labour is serious about helping new nurses, they need to pay them for this placement period, as nursing students in Australia are," Anne Daniels says.