Nursing reports

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) is concerned that after-hours attacks on Christchurch Hospital staff returning to their cars have continued without a proper long-term solution to parking in sight.

It follows the recent assault on a student midwife going back to her car from Kurawaka Waipapa.

NZNO Christchurch delegate Al Dietschin says staff have raised concerns about parking at the hospital for more than a decade, possibly longer, and while there has been some action from Te Whatu Ora, it is not nearly enough to prevent the assaults from persisting.

"How many incidents do we need to have before the employer acts in the interest of staff in accordance with the Health and Safety Employment Act?

"They have to provide a safe work environment. They always say health and safety of staff is important, but these after-hours assaults continue to happen."

Al Dietschin says the Tū Waka Waipapa building that opened opposite the hospital in November 2023 provides parking, but costs about $25 a day, which is unaffordable for most workers.

In wake of many assaults in the past, the hospital provides a minibus shuttle between 9pm and 1am, but staff are often made to wait too long for this arrive.

"Staff are reportedly walking to their cars because they’re made to wait 30 minutes or more after working the late shift for the shuttle to arrive. Staff don’t feel safe walking to cars after their shift or early morning in the dark, but they’re sometimes forced to."

Another shocking decision recently limits emergency department parking for lead maternity carers (community midwives) to five hours, he says.

"This used to be available for unlimited time. Now they’re forced to ask core staff to relieve them in the middle of a patient’s labour so they don’t get fined. That’s not good for the safety of their patients."

Al Dietschin says the solution is simple from the staff’s perspective.

"Staff only want safe after hours parking close to hospital, and we don’t want to break the bank for this to happen."

To fix chronic staff shortages stopping New Zealanders seeing their GPs when they’re sick, the Coalition Government must use Budget 2025 to keep nurses in the sector by paying them the same as hospital nurses, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says after recent wage rounds come into effect in July, most primary and community care nurse will still earn an average of 10% or $10,129 less a year than their hospital counterparts.

“There are currently 4884 FTE nurses working in primary and community care. NZNO calculations show that 274 more FTE nurses are needed in the sector to cover the care of the 300,000 New Zealanders who can’t even enrol with a primary health organisation such as a GP clinic.

“That means Budget 2025 needs to provide $52.3 million to ensure there is a sustainable primary and community health nursing workforce that can care for all New Zealanders. This would help take the pressure off hospital emergency departments which are overwhelmed with people who can’t see their local doctors when they first get sick,” Paul Goulter says.

If the Coalition Government is serious about fixing the health system, it needs to fix primary and community care.

“The difference in pay with hospital nurses largely reflects the pay equity settlement Te Whatu Ora nurses received. Following the Coalition Government’s gutting of the pay equity scheme and having to refile the primary and community care claim, this gap is only going to widen.

“Shovelling three times the amount to overseas owned urgent care franchises which most New Zealanders can’t afford to go to, is not the solution,” Paul Goulter says.

NZNO Primary Health Care Nurses College chair Tracey Morgan says earning $10,129 a year more would have a considerable impact on primary and community care nurses.

“Having that additional income would pay the average rent of a home in Hamilton, near where I live, for a third of the year. It could make the difference between a primary and community nurse staying in their role, helping whānau they have watched grow up, rather than leaving for better paid work in hospitals or overseas.

“We have the same skills and qualifications as hospital nurses. It is only fair that we are paid the same,” Tracey Morgan says.

Background:

• Research published in the Journal of Primary Health Care has found that New Zealand invests 5.4% of its total health funding in primary care.
• Other OECD countries allocate an average of 14% of their health spending to primary care.
• Evidence shows that for every $1 spent on primary care, $14 is saved in hospital-based, or secondary health care.

The Coalition Government must confirm its commitment to fully-funding pay equity for the funded health sector, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki O Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

After urgently changing the Equal Pay Act without public consultation and scrapping 33 pay equity claims overnight, the Coalition Government promised it had kept a “fair pay equity scheme focused on genuine sex-based discrimination”.

However, despite being asked in Parliament and by media, Cabinet ministers have refused to say whether a 2024 “pay equity reset” means the funded sector will not have pay equity claims funded by the Government. NZNO had 10 pay equity claims dumped including for the primary health care, hospice, Plunket and care and support funded sectors.

NZNO Primary Health Care Nurses College chair Tracey Morgan says the scrapping of the primary and community health care claim was devastating to nurses in the sector.

“Primary and community health care nurses, like their hospice and Plunket counterparts, accepted lower wage increases in their collective agreements on the understanding they were about to receive pay equity payments.

“They then had the rug pulled out from under them with the Government ending their claims without warning or legitimate reason.

“Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke Van Velden has refused to say the Government will fund pay equity claims for the funded sector, simply pointing to an opaque 2024 Cabinet paper from Finance Minister Nicola Willis which says the funded sector can go cap in hand to the Government for each settlement.

“If the Coalition Government remains truly committed to a fair pay equity system, it should promise low-paid and hard-working health care workers in the funded sector such as primary and community care that they will fund their pay equity settlements,” Tracey Morgan says.

NZNO’s Ōtautahi/Canterbury members will join local leaders and politicians to talk about the dire state of their local hospitals and the public health system at a hui on Thursday.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) will be supported by their Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and E tū colleagues at the event to raise public awareness and place further pressure on the Government to increase funding for health.

Included among the evening's speakers is long-serving and long-suffering enrolled nurse Debbie Handisides who says the Government needs to immediately plug the sinking ship that is health care.

"I’m concerned for patient safety, and their health outcomes due to the shortage of doctors, general practitioners, nurses, physios, occupational therapists, pharmacists, midwives and surgeons.

"Our patients are getting delayed health care with longer wait times to see GPs so they report to hospitals more unwell."

Like virtually every part of the country, Ōtautahi is struggling with under-resourcing and understaffing, and our communities are all feeling the impact, she says.

"Every sector of the health system is crumbling around health workers’ ears. The Government is not providing adequate funding for safe staffing, and they are disguising their frontline hiring freeze.

"Every day, health workers are burning themselves out while compensating for the Government’s refusal to fund a safe and effective health system.

"Patients are at serious risk of harm and are even dying on waiting lists. This is not good enough and we demand action."

Other speakers include Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland, Councillor and mayoral candidate Sara Templeton, an ASMS spokesperson, Spinal Trust National Programme manager Andrew Hall, and a nursing student representative.

Interview and photo opportunities available

WHEN: Thursday, 15 May 2025

TIME: 5.30pm-7pm

WHERE: Aldersgate Centre, 309 Durham Street North, Christchurch

Community members are welcome.

NZNO’s Ōtautahi/Canterbury members will join local leaders and politicians to talk about the dire state of their local hospitals and the public health system at a hui on Thursday.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) will be supported by their Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and E tū colleagues at the event to raise public awareness and place further pressure on the Government to increase funding for health.

Included among the evening's speakers is long-serving and long-suffering enrolled nurse Debbie Handisides who says the Government needs to immediately plug the sinking ship that is health care.

"I’m concerned for patient safety, and their health outcomes due to the shortage of doctors, general practitioners, nurses, physios, occupational therapists, pharmacists, midwives and surgeons.

"Our patients are getting delayed health care with longer wait times to see GPs so they report to hospitals more unwell."

Like virtually every part of the country, Ōtautahi is struggling with under-resourcing and understaffing, and our communities are all feeling the impact, she says.

"Every sector of the health system is crumbling around health workers’ ears. The Government is not providing adequate funding for safe staffing, and they are disguising their frontline hiring freeze.

"Every day, health workers are burning themselves out while compensating for the Government’s refusal to fund a safe and effective health system.

"Patients are at serious risk of harm and are even dying on waiting lists. This is not good enough and we demand action."

Other speakers include Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland, Councillor and mayoral candidate Sara Templeton, an ASMS spokesperson, Spinal Trust National Programme manager Andrew Hall, and a nursing student representative.

Interview and photo opportunities available

WHEN: Wednesday, 15 May 2025

TIME: 5.30pm-7pm

WHERE: Aldersgate Centre, 309 Durham Street North, Christchurch

Community members are welcome.

NZNO’s Ōtautahi/Canterbury members will join local leaders and politicians to talk about the dire state of their local hospitals and the public health system at a hui on Thursday.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) will be supported by their Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and E tū colleagues at the event to raise public awareness and place further pressure on the Government to increase funding for health.

Included among the evening's speakers is long-serving and long-suffering enrolled nurse Debbie Handisides who says the Government needs to immediately plug the sinking ship that is health care.

"I’m concerned for patient safety, and their health outcomes due to the shortage of doctors, general practitioners, nurses, physios, occupational therapists, pharmacists, midwives and surgeons.

"Our patients are getting delayed health care with longer wait times to see GPs so they report to hospitals more unwell."

Like virtually every part of the country, Ōtautahi is struggling with under-resourcing and understaffing, and our communities are all feeling the impact, she says.

"Every sector of the health system is crumbling around health workers’ ears. The Government is not providing adequate funding for safe staffing, and they are disguising their frontline hiring freeze.

"Every day, health workers are burning themselves out while compensating for the Government’s refusal to fund a safe and effective health system.

"Patients are at serious risk of harm and are even dying on waiting lists. This is not good enough and we demand action."

Other speakers include Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland, Councillor and mayoral candidate Sara Templeton, an ASMS spokesperson, Spinal Trust National Programme manager Andrew Hall, and a nursing student representative.

Interview and photo opportunities available

WHEN: Wednesday, 15 May 2025

TIME: 5.30pm-7pm

WHERE: Aldersgate Centre, 309 Durham Street North, Christchurch

Community members are welcome.

NZNO’s Ōtautahi/Canterbury members will join local leaders and politicians to talk about the dire state of their local hospitals and the public health system at a hui on Thursday.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) will be supported by their Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and E tū colleagues at the event to raise public awareness and place further pressure on the Government to increase funding for health.

Included among the evening's speakers is long-serving and long-suffering enrolled nurse Debbie Handisides who says the Government needs to immediately plug the sinking ship that is health care.

"I’m concerned for patient safety, and their health outcomes due to the shortage of doctors, general practitioners, nurses, physios, occupational therapists, pharmacists, midwives and surgeons.

"Our patients are getting delayed health care with longer wait times to see GPs so they report to hospitals more unwell."

Like virtually every part of the country, Ōtautahi is struggling with under-resourcing and understaffing, and our communities are all feeling the impact, she says.

"Every sector of the health system is crumbling around health workers’ ears. The Government is not providing adequate funding for safe staffing, and they are disguising their frontline hiring freeze.

"Every day, health workers are burning themselves out while compensating for the Government’s refusal to fund a safe and effective health system.

"Patients are at serious risk of harm and are even dying on waiting lists. This is not good enough and we demand action."

Other speakers include Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland, Councillor and mayoral candidate Sara Templeton, an ASMS spokesperson, Spinal Trust National Programme manager Andrew Hall, and a nursing student representative.

Interview and photo opportunities available

WHEN: Wednesday, 15 May 2025

TIME: 5.30pm-7pm

WHERE: Aldersgate Centre, 309 Durham Street North, Christchurch

Community members are welcome.

This year’s Hospice Awareness Week comes as hospices struggle to keep their doors open because of a lack of Government funding and nurses’ chances of fair pay shattered by the removal of their pay equity claim, NZNO says.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) hospice pay equity claim was filed in late-2023 covering 27 hospices employing its members. That claim, alongside nine others for NZNO, were thrown out by the Government last week with its to pay equity law changes.

Hospice New Zealand today said Te Whatu Ora had refused to adjust their funding so hospice nurses and health care assistants could be paid the same as their hospital counterparts. Hospices could not afford to fund the widening pay gap as at least 35% of hospice nurses’ wages came from fundraising and donations because of chronic underfunding of the sector.

NZNO delegate and hospice nurse Donna Burnett says hospice nurses are demoralised and angered by last week’s announcement.

"Hospices are already facing service cutbacks, with a strong possibility of closures in small region because of the current lack of funding. It is not sustainable. On top of this, at the swipe of a pen and a blink of an eye, Government pulled pay equity out from under us."

Due to New Zealand’s aging population, the crisis for hospices will only worsen if the Government doesn’t step up and properly fund the sector, she says.

"We are meant to be raising awareness about hospices this week, but the reality is people need to be aware of what’s happening to us nurses and health care assistants because it impacts our patients.

"Without pay equity and a fully funded sector, hospices will keep losing nurses and health care assistants to better paying hospitals or overseas health systems.

"Dying New Zealanders and their whānau have enough to worry about without not being able to access hospice care because of short staffing which is a direct result of Government decisions," Donna Burnett says.

Changes by the Government to make pay equity claims harder to lodge and resolve are an attack on women, New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke Van Velden today announced changes saying they will "significantly reduce costs to the Crown".

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says nurses will be outraged that historical gender discrimination will not be addressed so the Government can save money.

"This is a blatant and shameful attack on women.

"Women in workforces predominantly performed by female employees have been underpaid and undervalued for generations. That is what pay equity claims seek to rectify.

"This move by the Government will widen the pay gap between men and women," Paul Goulter says.

NZNO has at least 10 pay equity claims being progressed across branches of the health sector including Aged Care, Primary Health Care, Hospices, Plunket, Community Health and Laboratories covering many nurse and support worker roles.

Paul Goulter says some of these claims have been going on for years.

"Our members will be devastated that after years of waiting for settlements, the Government is now pulling the rug out from under their feet.

"This move is particularly unfair to primary health and aged care nurses who are being denied the opportunity to close the pay gap with their hospital counterparts. Our Plunket and hospice members now face the injustice of having to redo their pay equity claims," Paul Goulter says.

Te Toka Tumai Auckland Te Whatu Ora theatre nurses will strike for two hours tomorrow over attempts by Health New Zealand not to pay them appropriately for involuntary overtime.

The 370 perioperative (which includes preoperative, theatre and postoperative) nurses are members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki O Aotearoa (NZNO) working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Hospital.

NZNO delegate and perioperative nurse Alissa Baker says nurses are standing up against involuntary overtime. This stand is part of the current collective agreement bargaining between NZNO and Te Whatu Ora.

"Nurses should be paid appropriately for the work we are doing, and that does not include forced overtime as the Te Whatu Ora proposal seeks to enforce," Alissa Baker says.

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says it is appropriate the perioperative nurses are striking on May Day.

"May Day is a day for workers and unions around the world to celebrate workers’ rights and the union movement. It is timely that our perioperative nurses are making a stand for fair pay on May Day.

"The Government continues to chronically under-resource health, is increasing the privatisation of health services and fails to address the crisis in primary and aged residential care. This is another insult to other nurses and health care workers around the country.

"This year NZNO members will join their fellow union members around the country at Fight Back for Health and Fight Back Together events," Paul Goulter says.

Editor notes:

- Striking perioperative nurses will join senior doctors and cross-union members for the May Day Fight Back for Heath event outside the front of Auckland City Hospital from 9am to 1pm tomorrow (Thursday 1 May)

- NZNO perioperative members from Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike between 9am-11am.

- NZNO perioperative members working in Post Anaesthesia Care Units on level 4, 8 and 9 at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike between 11.30am-1.30pm.

- Information about Fight Back for Health events can be found here

- Information about Fight Back Together can be found here

Avoidable harm caused to patients both in New Zealand and in the United Kingdom shows the introduction of physician associates is a risk to patient safety, New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced that physician associates will be regulated as a new profession in New Zealand.

NZNO President Anne Daniels says the introduction of the new, overseas trained workforce, leaves patients vulnerable to misdiagnoses or worse. Similar concerns have also been raised by the Resident Doctors’ Association.

"Here in New Zealand there have been concerns physician associates have failed to take a patient’s blood pressure, leading to a brain bleed and loss of vision.

"In the United Kingdom where physician associates have been part of the health sector for the past 20 years, there has been a litany of issues including the misdiagnosis of an aggressive breast cancer resulting in the death of a young mother, opiates illegally prescribed, failure to detect a deadly pulmonary embolism and a drain left in a patient’s abdomen."

Anne Daniels says nurses are focused on providing the safe, high-quality and culturally appropriate care New Zealanders expect and deserve.

"The introduction of physician associates is an unnecessary quick and cheap fix to the doctor shortage when we have a competent and experienced nurse practitioner workforce available to do this work. The Minister must immediately stop the introduction and regulation of physician associates here," she says.