Close to 36,000 nurses, midwives, and healthcare workers have begun a nationwide 24-hour strike today.
From 9am, members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation walked off the job. Those in the public health sector were overworked, under-resourced, and understaffed, the union said.
Health New Zealand said that despite today’s strike, hospitals and emergency departments would remain open.
The latest mediation talks between the union and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora broke down, leading to the strike.
NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter told Breakfast mediation fell through because “the gaps were just big”.
“It seems that the staffing claims we have in front of them, they couldn’t meet that.
He said the issue of staffing was a “serious” and “long-term” problem within the sector and believed the Government was not prepared to fund to levels the union believed were safe.
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Goulter wanted Health NZ to enforce the existing staffing model.
“They’ve just, in our view, walked away from it. They’re saying, ‘you’ve got a model in place, it says how many staff you’re going to need on any particular shift or any particular ward, staff up to it’,” he said. “And they can’t do or won’t do that.”
He said staffing levels on the ground had led to nurses retiring “fatigued, worn out, angry, frustrated, and distressed”. Thatmeant patients were not receiving the care they needed and were often handled by other staff members, such as healthcare assistants.
“It looks like nurses are not being able to spend the time that they were trained to do with patients, and all that leads up to a pretty dire situation.”
Nurses across the country gathered outside hospitals, chanting and waving flags.
In Greymouth, duty nurse manager Michelle Gunn said the strike was needed to alert the public to “a desperate need for safe staffing”.
“We are chronically short in there and it’s just getting worse and worse. People are leaving, they’re going overseas, they are leaving for all sorts of reasons and they are just not being replaced.
“Ultimately, we are here for our patients,” she said.
In Dunedin, nurse Robyn Hewlett said there was a good turnout from members, which showed “everyone is supporting the strike”.
“This just shows how deeply we feel about safe staffing.”
Near the rally in Christchurch, one man was taken into custody by police after he and another man acted in a “threatening manner” towards the protesters. According to Stuff, the man had a knife and threatened nurses, claiming his grandmother was “dying” in the hospital and they weren’t working.
Health NZ said hospitals would remain open during the strike, and emergency care would continue to be provided. All emergency departments would be open, and all serious services would be there for those who needed them.
All deferred appointments would be rescheduled to the next available opportunity. Health NZ said those with an appointment, who had not heard otherwise, should turn up as usual.
Health NZ estimated 4300 planned procedures and specialist appointments would need to be postponed due to the strike.
Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, acting chief clinical officer at Health New Zealand, said all hospitals were facing an “awful lot of pressure” during the winter months, and today’s strike would make things “particularly tricky”.
“What we’re asking people is, remember, if you’re not sure if this is truly an emergency or not, there are other options before you turn up to ED.”
She recommended that people call Healthline or their GP if they were unsure whether it was an emergency. If it was still an emergency, she urged people to go to the emergency department, but to expect some delays.
“Waits may be longer, and we’d ask you to bear with us, and please don’t take it out on our staff who are there.”
On strike itself, Dame Helen said the organisation respected the union’s right to take industrial action, but said it was “clearly” disappointing. She urged the union to come back to the negotiating table.
Responding to the union’s concerns of staffing, she said Health NZ took safe staffing “very, very seriously”.
“Everyone is working incredibly hard with the resources we’ve got to provide the best possible care.”
Health Minister Simeon Brown spoke to media this afternoon, where he urged the union to return to the negotiating table.
He said today’s strike was causing “real and avoidable harm” to patients.
“We value our nursing workforce, but this strike creates significant risks for patients. It’s not the path to safer care.
“Let me be clear, patient safety is a top priority for Health New Zealand, and they are committing to staffing our hospitals to ensure the safety of our patients.”
He said the union’s demand to take control of the rostering system was unfair, as it was a clinical responsibility “that must remain with Health New Zealand”.
Brown said the Government had increased the number of nurses in New Zealand by 2100, which he described as a “significant increase”.
