Nurse protests a worry for Government

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Weekend scenes of national protests by nurses would not have been a welcome sight for the Government six months out from an election in which the overall health sector situation is going to be a key attack point for the Opposition.

Nurses from hospitals, aged care, Plunket and Maori health providers took part in 20 centres around the country on Saturday. Interestingly the protests were focused on the crisis in nursing and the health system overall, rather than wages.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation president Anne Daniels said she would love to say things were improving, but they were absolutely not. The country needed more nurses, midwives and allied healthcare workers to provide safe care and alleviate chronic issues the sector was facing, including burnout.

Nearly 5000 nurses had registered to work in Australia since August and the turnover showed the sector could no longer wait for action, she said. That point was reinforced by the number of signs held by protesters saying they were looking to move to Australia.

The union’s chief executive Paul Goulter said the country was short about 5000 nurses, while NZ Nurses Organisation kaiwhakahaere Kerry Nuku said despite pay equity rates that came into force in 2019 helping to address historical gender discrimination in the profession, nurses were leaving because of the mounting pressure put on them while at work, including long and unsafe hours with not enough staff rostered on, resulting in emergency departments overflowing and surgeries being delayed, she said.

Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said tackling health workforce issues was a No.1 priority. She pointed out that in March nurses were given pay increases to achieve pay equity and at levels she described at the time as being competitive with Australia.

Unfortunately for Verrall and the Government, the image the public have is of a health sector in crisis. Repeated stories of ambulances being turned away from emergency centres, seriously ill people facing long and life-threatening waits for surgery and people spending thousands to pay for drugs that are not available from Pharmac have created deep concern.

The health sector is a gift that keeps on giving for the Opposition, needing little application on their part apart from making statements supporting workers and stressing the obvious deficiencies. These are not problems the Government can fix overnight, but critics will say they have had more than five years to address the issues.