Kaitiaki Nursing New Zealand visited the picket lines as NZNO nurses added their support around Aotearoa to the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists strike on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tubman, who works at Wairarapa hospital, said she was supporting the doctors because she saw first-hand what they were dealing with.
“They’re always on the go, always being pulled from pillar to post — they’re always trying to get patients in and out but with constraints of bed numbers.”
She said the same day the doctors were striking, the surgical department at her hospital was being used as overflow for medical patients with no beds available.
Tubman said nurses, like doctors, were trying to stay healthy for their own patients. “But when you’re being asked to do more and more because there’s not enough staff, not enough nurses, not enough beds, it makes it so much harder.”
She said she’d managed to get a few days of leave during the holidays, but it was really important to support the doctors. “I was with my partner who’s also a part of the teachers’ union as well.”
It’s all good-will
In Johnsonville, Wellington, it was day two of the nationwide senior doctor’s strike and a crowd of union members gathered to send Nicola Willis a message.
A trio of obstretrician-gynaecologists are standing out front of the Finance Minister’s office with signs, and they’ve had enough.
Ob-gyn Judy Ormandy said they were there — instead of Wellington hospital — because they wanted a properly-funded public health system that met patients’ needs.
And, added ob-gyn Leigh Searle nearby, they aimed to keep doctors in New Zealand and not overseas in places like Australia.
Ob-gyn Rose Elder said the system seemed to be running on goodwill.
“And also there just aren’t the training opportunities, because they’re not funded, so people go overseas to train and then they’re lost forever.”
Senior doctors and dentists, 6000 in total, went out on strike on Tuesday and Wednesday around the country.
More than 85 per cent of ASMS members voted to strike for two days over a pay offer that would have seen an effective pay cut for most members.
Health NZ chief executive Dale Bramley said the organisation was “disappointed and concerned” by the action. He said the action would result in delays to care, surgeries and treatments for thousands of patients.
Doctors, nurses, teachers on strike
The latest strike came as the Coalition Government faced a full-scale revolt from key public service groups.
It followed three days of strikes in the past two months by NZNO Te Whatu Ora members, and ongoing industrial action from teachers.
Secondary school teachers went on strike last week, and primary school teachers have voted to strike in October.
