In their words: Starship ward 27b nurses speak out
Nurses on the ward told Kaitiaki while some new nurses had been hired on the ward, they were either newly-qualified or didn’t have experience in paediatric oncology.
“The problem isn’t just the number of nurses we have, it’s the level of experience on the floor,” said one. “We’re really short of experienced nurses, especially those who are qualified to give chemotherapy.”
Some had been told they couldn’t do their chemotherapy training until next year — and those being trained now were being “rushed through before they’ve had a chance to build up their skills and confidence”.
As a result, chemotherapy was “absolutely being delayed because we don’t have enough nurses qualified to administer it,” particularly on night shifts.
That meant treatments often got pushed back a day or two.
Another said nurses without enough experience were looking after complex patients.
“When I first started working in this area, you had to have a lot of experience before you could work with transplant patients. . . Now we’re seeing nurses with only months of experience looking after incredibly vulnerable transplant patients.”
Experienced nurses were under too much pressure to support the newer nurses how they would like.
“I can see they need help, but I’ve got so much going on with my own patients that I just don’t have the time.”
Another said conditions were the worst they’d experienced.
“I’ve never seen it this bad. I’ve never felt so unsafe at work, and I’ve never cried so much. It’s honestly broken me.”
One nurse said they used to love getting to know their patients.
“We get to know them and their families and we get to be there with them throughout their journey,” they said.
“But we can’t do that anymore. We’re so stretched that we barely have time to do what absolutely needs to be done, let alone spend time with patients and their families.”
“It’s heartbreaking because we know what good care looks like. We know what these patients need and we want to be able to give them that. But, right now, we’re just trying to get through each shift.”
A Starship nurse told the New Zealand Herald staff were “horrified” after being told last week that some bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy treatments would have to be postponed due to lack of staff.
But Brown claimed it was only a “handful” of cases due to a “small number” of nursing vacancies.
“Because of these vacancies, a handful of chemotherapy sessions have been delayed by a few days” — but no more than seven, Brown said in a Facebook post.
‘It doesn’t matter whether you call it delayed, suspended or postponed — any wait for cancer treatment is a lifetime when you have a sick child.’
NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku has dismissed his comments as “semantics” as new figures released today show nurse shortages have plagued the ward all year — hitting a peak in August when 85 per cent of shifts were below safe-staffing targets.
“It doesn’t matter whether you call it delayed, suspended or postponed — any wait for cancer treatment is a lifetime when you have a sick child,” Nuku said.
“Health Minister Simeon Brown can argue oncology services are being postponed and not suspended but such semantics are unlikely to be important to whānau with children with cancer.”
The figures — obtained by NZNO under the Official Information Act — show overall, 42 per cent of shifts on Starship’s oncology ward — 310 out of 729 — were understaffed in 2026.
Staffing levels had worsened since the previous year, 2025, when 31 per cent of all shifts were below safe levels. That amounted to 1147 fewer clinical care hours for patients this year or six full-time nurses, Nuku said.
Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ (HNZ) should never have let it get this bad, Nuku said.
“Nurses have been crying out for the past two years about the risk to patient safety caused by deliberate short-staffing.”
Treatments ‘rescheduled’
Starship Hospital director Greg Williams confirmed nursing shortages had forced its paediatric haematology/oncology service to “reschedule some treatments”.
“These decisions are not made lightly and are based on clinical need.”
Starship was recruiting experienced and new graduate nurses “as quickly as possible”, said Williams.
“We want to reassure parents and families that their children will get the clinical care and support they need.”
However, later,HNZ issued another statement saying Starship “has not suspended any cancer treatments and no children have missed out on cancer care”.
Auckland director of operations Mike Shepherd said treatment schedules were “routinely adjusted to match capacity”.
“This is prioritised in a way which ensures the highest risk patients have little to now delay in treatment.”
Staffing had improved in October, he said, releasing data showing a third of shifts were understaffed so far this month.