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.
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“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.
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