40,000 chickens with bird flu to be culled on Otago egg farm, weather conditions hinder search for three missing climbers and health care workers on strike. Video / NZ Herald
A nurse at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, Noreen McCallan, says the hospital is struggling with nursing staffing.
Around 36,000 NZ Nurses Organisation members, including 200 in Hawke’s Bay, went on strike for better pay and conditions on Tuesday.
Health NZ’s Mark Shepherd claims there are more nurses on hospital floors and ongoing salary negotiations.
A woman who has worked at Hawke’s Bay Hospital for 37 years says she and her fellow nurses are “holding on by the skin of our teeth” because of staff shortages.
Noreen McCallan started working at the hospital in 1987 and said the situation wasn’t the worst she had everseen, but morale was trending downward in “a very steep direction” and could have consequences for patient care.
“I have a colleague who worked a night shift once with three registered nurses to 27 patients, and there was four cardiac arrest calls in that night. You cannot manage that on a regular basis.
“That leads to burnout, stress and people not getting safe care.
“There is just a terrible event waiting to happen. We’re just holding on by the skin of our teeth here that tragedies that are happeningaround the country don’t happen here.”
Nurses on strike on Tuesday outside Hawke's Bay Hospital. Photo / Jack Riddell
Roughly 36,000 members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) went on strike nationwide on Tuesday, to protest staffing numbers and call for higher pay increases that consider the cost of living crisis.
NZNO claims any settlement with Health NZ currently will be limited to a total increase of 1%.
About 200 nurses gathered on Omahu Rd by Hawke’s Bay Hospital by 11.30am.
Health NZ deputy chief executive Northern Mark Shepherd told RNZ that New Zealand had never had more nurses on hospital floors, with 35,000 nurses across the sector and an additional 3800 new graduate nurses hired by Health NZ in the last 18 months.
“Additional nurses are on the floor,” Shepherd said.
He said there was not a hiring freeze in place.
Noreen McCallan, a nurse at Hawke's Bay Hospital, was on strike on Tuesday. Photo / Jack Riddell
“What we actually are doing is just reviewing the methodology that is being used because it is being used inconsistently across the organisation.
“We have been very clear with the union about that, taken them through the rationale behind that and it’s a very short improvement exercise to go through that.”
McCallan said she believed Health NZ were deliberately delaying replacing nurses who take leave or resign.
“We know for a fact that there’s not automatic replacement of vacancies.”
McCallan said the Government “loves to throw up this pay rise that we’ve had but it was pay equity that was long overdue”.
“What we want is something that more reflects the cost of living increases that we’ve seen and we don’t think that’s unreasonable,” McCallan said.
Shepherd told RNZ Health NZ was in the bargaining process with NZNO and is working to “determine the available funding and how it would be best to find its way into nursing salaries through different mechanisms”.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region, along with pieces on art, music, and culture.
