Nurses' strikes: What the public needs to know

Delays and cancelled appointments can be expected. Photo / File

Nurses plan to strike for 24 hours from 7am tomorrow but what does this mean for patients or people seeking hospital care?

Anyone with an urgent medical need should not hesitate to dial 111 or go to an emergency department.

For day-to-day medical queries the public can contact their GPs or use the 0800 Healthline number.

People with appointments or surgeries that have been postponed should have been contacted by their district health board.

If you have something scheduled and have not heard otherwise you should attend as usual. If you are unsure, contact your health board.

Patients in hospital will have to wait longer for help with those things. In some cases, whanau, volunteers and doctors will be asked to help out.

Patients deemed not to require "life-saving" care, who require assistance with tasks such as turning on bedrests, inserting intravenous pumps, help going to the bathroom and bathing will wait longer. Family, volunteers and doctors have been asked to help out in some cases.

Some services like Family Planning are not affected by the strike, but others could be if the nurses are paid by the DHB. If you already have an appointment booked, check it's still on.