Nursing reports

Ensuring patients’ needs are met should be the primary factor in determining how many nurses Te Whatu Ora needs, New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

Commissioner Dr Lester Levy this morning revealed Te Whatu Ora is employing 3000 more nurses than it has budgeted for, and blamed recent recruitment. This is still significantly less than the 4800 identified in Te Whatu Ora’s 2023/24 Health Workforce Plan.

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says the Commissioner is confusing the difference between budget and need.

“Budget figures and the behaviour of Te Whatu Ora – such as cutting senior clinical roles – is affecting patient care and whānau wellbeing.

“The increase in nursing is driven by demand. We have a growing and aging population which has more serious and complex health needs. We have an acute shortage of nurses in primary and community care.

“Budget figures are plucked out of the air and are a political choice. Aotearoa faces a chronic nurse shortage.

“New Zealanders are well aware of the long waits for care at our hospital Emergency Departments and the difficulty whānau face when trying to access services such as crucial mental health treatment,” he says.

Te Whatu Ora and the Ministry of Health have never agreed to enforceable safe nurse ratios, something in place in Australia, Ireland, Canada and parts of the United States.

“The voice of patients are missing in this financial crisis manufactured by the Coalition Government. The Government can choose to properly fund the health system. And that includes making sure New Zealanders have the nurses they need,” Paul Goulter says.

Members of New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa employed at Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora will tomorrow (Wednesday 9 October) deliver a giant overdue invoice for $2.1 billion for Holiday Act remediation.

The overdue invoice has been signed by more than 6000 NZNO members and will be presented to Te Whatu Ora CEO Margie Apa at her office.

Te Whatu Ora has been working to calculate entitlements for around 228,000 workers since 2016. It was revealed in August it had stopped hiring consultants needed to complete this work.

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says nurses are increasingly frustrated by the years-long delays in getting paid what they are owed.

“This fiasco has been dragging on for years. It is time for Te Whatu Ora to prioritise these payments for their hardworking nurses.

“Paying staff correctly for the work they perform is a minimum expectation of any employer. This is effectively wage theft.

“Nurses deserve better than ongoing delays and lack of certainty about when this work will be finalised,” Paul Goulter says.

Concerns over patient safety on the West Coast have prompted the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki O Aotearoa to join a march in Buller on Saturday to raise awareness of the dire state of the health system.

West Coast urgent GPs clinics end this weekend. From 1 October Ka Ora Telehealth will be providing after hours primary care and patient will need their referral to see a doctor.

NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says the closure of the West Coast urgent care GP clinic will put more pressure on Buller Hospital, which is already stretched. 

"Relying on telehealth services out of hours jeopardises patient safety.

"Aotearoa’s health system is in crisis and the understaffing in our hospitals and health care settings continues unabated with this Government’s obsession with cutting costs.

"There is a chronic shortage of thousands of nurses throughout the country which is contributing to increased wait times in Emergency Departments and compromising the quality of patient care.

"That’s why NZNO will stand proudly alongside our fellow health care organisations on Saturday and urge the Government to better fund health care. Nursing care is an investment, not a cost," Ms Nuku says.

Ms Nuku will speak at the march which has been organised by Buller Health Action Group and Patient Voice Aotearoa. Other speakers include Malcolm Mulholland of Patient Voice Aotearoa, and Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

Media are invited to attend Saturday’s march:

When: Midday, Saturday 28 September

Where: Victoria Square, Westport

There will be a silent march from the grandstand via Brougham and Palmerston streets to the clock tower

The Government’s announcement today that it will scale back the new Dunedin hospital will negatively impact patient care, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki O Aotearoa says.

"Southerners deserve more than half a hospital or a slow rebuild of the old hospital," says NZNO delegate Linda Smillie.

"These decisions will negatively impact patient care. There is a real risk that nurses will not be able to provide the appropriate level of care their patients need."

The Government knows the cost of infrastructure projects always blow out because of rising building costs, she says.

"This is cost cutting by stealth. The Government must find the additional funding needed to build this much-needed health facility.

"If the Government can find $3 billion to give to landlords and $216 million for tobacco companies, they can find the additional funding needed to build the new Dunedin hospital.

"Repurposing the existing hospital doesn’t make sense because it is not fit for purpose, and inpatient and outpatient areas need to in close proximity. This option has been well investigated previously and deemed to be unfeasible," Linda Smillie says.

NZNO urges Dunedin residents to join them and march on Saturday against the decision to stop the construction and to show the Government how important the new hospital is.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki O Aotearoa members will gather in support of their bargaining team on tomorrow morning to mark the first day of collective contract negotiations with Te Whatu Ora.

Wednesday 25 September will be the first day of bargaining for NZNO’s biggest collective contract.

"This year’s bargaining is taking place at a time when our health system is om crisis," NZNO delegate Bruce McIntosh says.

"There is a chronic shortage of thousands of nurses at Te Whatu Ora nurses which is leading to increased wait times in Emergency Departments and compromising the quality of patient care," Bruce McIntosh says.

"Understaffing in our hospitals has been exacerbated with the Government’s obsession with cutting costs.

"With a commissioner appointed to Te Whatu Ora and a voluntary redundancy process underway, there’s no doubt our bargaining team has their work cut out for them.

"Members are gathering on Wednesday morning in solidarity with the bargaining team and to wish them all the best as they arrive for this important mahi. They will take with them into the negotiation room the collective strength of 35,000 members covered by this agreement," Bruce McIntosh says.

Media are invited to attend the rally:

Where: The Manawa, 276 Antigua Street, Christchurch

Time: 9am

Date: Wednesday 25 September

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) agrees with the Minister of Health that every dollar spent on health is precious but disagrees that the Government’s health targets can be reached within current budgets.

Today, Health Minister Hon Dr Shane Reti released the Government’s implementation plan for reaching its five health targets for shorter stays in emergency departments, shorten wait times to see specialists and receive treatments, improved immunisation for children and faster access to cancer treatments. Initiatives include expanding the number of beds and operating theatres in public hospitals and making greater use of capacity in private hospitals.

Health Commissioner Lester Levy has advised him that these targets can be reached within current resources.

NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says it’s one thing to have a plan, but you need people and resources to implement it.

"The operational Health Budget only increased by 0.4 percent. That’s not enough to address staffing issues or achieve the health targets. The simple truth is that Health is underfunded and under-staffed.

"We are continually hearing from our members that there is an understaffing crisis. They have held rallies, strikes and marches outside their hospitals and care facilities voicing their concerns about understaffing and cuts to health care.

"Te Whatu Ora say that they are recruiting more nurses than ever, but this is not the reality our nurses are seeing when they are struggling with high workloads, and nurses are not being replaced when they leave.

"We know there is a freeze on roles that are not patient-facing such as administration and support staff. This will have a flow-on event of even more work for frontline staff.

Reducing waiting times and ED stays will be very difficult to achieve with the current lack of investment in the health workforce. We need a robust workforce that can provide the high-quality care Dr Reti envisions for all the people of New Zealand. This won’t be happening without a commitment to appropriate funding, says Ms Nuku.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) is horrified by statements from Finance Minister Nicola Willis that the Government is experimenting with using heated tobacco products as an alternative to cigarettes to see if they will help people to stop smoking.

This follows a recent halving of the excise tax on heated tobacco products.

The Minister made these statements on Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report programme today.

NZNO Board Member and Nurse Practitioner Lucy McLaren says it is difficult to understand the rational that making tobacco products more available will lead to less people smoking.

"It’s horrifying that our finance minister sees this as an opportunity to gamble with the health and lives of our people.

"There is no evidence that making more tobacco products available will help people quit smoking, and there is no conclusive, independent evidence they are less harmful than cigarettes. We think this ‘experiment’ is more likely to result in more people - particularly young people - smoking.

"It’s our tamariki using these products. We know the tobacco industry is already marketing heated tobacco products to rangatahi. Once they are hooked on these, they’ve got a customer for life.

"We know that smoking and the use of tobacco products is harmful to health. The only ones benefiting from this ‘experiment’ will be the tobacco industry.

"We call upon the Government to halt this experiment and reverse the decision on tax cuts for heated tobacco products," says Ms McLaren.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) has deep concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the aggression of the Israeli state towards the Palestinian peoples.

Board member and mental health nurse Grant Brookes said: "We are aware that some drug suppliers such as Teva are funding Israeli activities in Gaza and the West bank. Last year, Teva contributed almost $1 billion in revenue to the Israeli government, and in June this year it agreed to settle an historical tax bill of up to $2 billion. We don’t support Teva or any other supplier that enables Israel's acts of aggression."

On 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT; encompassing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem) to be illegal under international law. Teva profits from this illegal occupation at the expense of Palestinian health, because Israel excludes cheaper drug companies from supplying what is a "captive market" for them in the OPT.

"For this reason, we call on Pharmac through its tender process to replace medicines currently on the Pharmaceutical Schedule that are currently supplied by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (Teva) with another brand," Brookes said.

"They should also refrain from sourcing from Teva other medicines currently on the Pharmaceutical schedule but procured through other suppliers and refrain from sourcing from Teva medicines that are not currently on the Pharmaceutical Schedule, but which Pharmac intends to add to the schedule."

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) has joined the nation in mourning the passing of Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII.

Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said among the union’s membership are thousands of Māori nurses who would have been feeling a deep loss this morning, after finding out about his death.

"Like all nurses, Māori nurses will be doing their mahi today, but their day would have started with a deep sadness because they’ve lost a leader," Ms Nuku said.

"Kiingi Tuheitia stood for all the values and aspirations that our Māori nurses have been fighting for which in essence is - love the people, care for them and the nation.

"Our hearts are with his wife Makau Ariki, their children, the Kiingitanga movement and all of Waikato Tainui."

Kingii Tuheitia and the Kiingitanga movement promoted alternatives to a health system not working for Māori, Ms Nuku said.

"Going right back to the days of Te Puea Hērangi, about 100 years ago, the Kiingitanga have been trying to tell the powers that be that there are other ways to improve the health and wellbeing of their people. And that way is Mana Motuhake."

In 2006, a scholarship programme for Waikato Tainui descendants studying nursing was established in the name of Kiingi Tuheitia’s late mother, Dame Te Ātairangikaahu.

Nurses are kicking off their collective bargaining with Te Whatu Ora by taking action for safe staffing on Friday, New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

On Friday, NZNO members employed by Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora commence bargaining for their 2024 collective agreement negotiations. Also, at the forefront will be claims reflecting the needs of Māori nurses. Nurses and health workers across the motu will take action on Friday to let Te Whatu Ora and the Government know that safe staffing will be the priority in this year’s negotiations.

NZNO CEO Paul Goulter said cuts to healthcare are making the system worse for patients and for the health workers who provide care.

"Te Whatu Ora needs to be doing everything it can to keep nurses in New Zealand and safe staffing is a critical part of this picture.

"Nurses are taking a stand this Friday because they know it is patients and whanau that suffer when our health system is underfunded, and staffing gaps not filled.

"When nurses look to Australia, they not only see better pay but also better working conditions in the form of safe staffing ratios. Nurses don’t want to work in hospitals that are continuously understaffed and under-resourced."

Among the numerous countrywide activities planned for Friday, Northland health workers will hold a rally outside the office of Health Minister Shane Reti in Whangārei.

Whangārei delegate Sacha Young said this was a prime opportunity to show the minister how the local people feel about recent changes in health.

"He’s our local MP so he’s accountable to us. We need to remind him that we are not seeing improvements in the health system since he’s become the health minister."

Young is upset that once again workers are forced to include safe staffing in bargaining with the employer.

"We would expect that would be a given. It’s sad that decade after decade we have to keep fighting to be safe in our workplace."

Health workers and the public want to see change and they are hoping to see commitment from Te Whatu Ora during this bargaining process, Ms Young said.

Stand with health workers! Join us in calling on Te Whatu Ora and the Government to increase funding for health and to value health workers.

Find the action locations here.