Government ‘fudging’ hiring figures as nurses face intense pressure

In total, there were just 54 more full-time equivalent (FTE) nursing roles at Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ (HNZ) in the quarter to March this year than when the Government got its feet under the desk two years ago, HNZ’s own workforce statistics show. Any additional boost came from the tail-end of a recruitment drive launched under Labour.

Minister of Health Simeon Brown has repeatedly claimed that 2100 new nurses have been hired at HNZ under the current Government. But many of these new nurses were hired in part-time roles — and it fails to factor in nurses who have left.

‘That interview was so bad — it really showed how much fudging was going on.’

NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said nurses were under enormous staffing pressure. “What I’ve heard is that many nurses are thinking of leaving because of that pressure. I can’t imagine the pressure that they’re going under.”

Speaking to TVNZ’s Q&A over the weekend, Brown tried to say that there were now 2100 more nurses at HNZ — but was challenged by interviewer Jack Tame.

“Come on Minister, that is totally different [and] not accounting for attrition,” Tame said.

Brown then acknowledged there was “a lot more work to do” saying he was keen to progress nurse-patient ratios to get a clearer picture of how many nurses are needed. A commitment to research ratios internationally was a key part of the latest NZNO-HNZ collective.

Nuku said she had been lost for words after the interview. “That interview was so bad — it really showed how much fudging was going on.”

The hiring figures showed that efforts to recruit more Māori into nursing were also currently a dream.

“We’re dreaming that this Government actually cares about recruiting Māori nurses . . . quietly people are saying ‘it would be great to get more Māori nurses’, but actually if there’s no strategy, intention or investment it’s never going to happen.”

It was hard to articulate how bad things were for nurses currently, Nuku said.

‘Come on Minister, that is totally different [and] not accounting for attrition.’

HNZ figures show a surge of nearly 3000 nurses hired between mid-2023 and early 2024 — stalling a few months after the new Government took power amid a graduate hiring freeze.

Recruitment delays soon extended to the wider health workforce amid a $1 billion Budget blowout (which then-chief executive Margie Apa blamed on nurse recruitment.)

Over that same two years the hiring rate for nurse graduates at HNZ has remained low with fewer than half getting hired each round.

Cuts in disguise?

Just over three per cent of nurse vacancies were approved for recruitment in 2025, figures provided to Kaitiaki reveal.

Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall told Kaitiaki that HNZ had disguised frontline cuts by simply not replacing nurses when they left — saving hundreds of millions.

“Right now, 1445 nursing vacancies are unfilled across HNZ and around 1300 have remained unfilled over the last two years,” she said.

“This has saved HNZ over $200m and by leaving these positions unfilled, it can claim it hasn’t cut jobs.”

The worst health district was Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley where 444 nursing vacancies remained unfilled. “It’s as if Wellington and Hutt hospitals just cut 444 nursing jobs,” Verrall said.

“The Government has broken its promise not to cut front line jobs – and found a sneaky way to save millions on staffing costs.”

Health Minister Simeon Brown did not respond to questions from Kaitiaki about the staffing numbers — and has not responded to any questions for several weeks.

NZNO researcher Nathalie Jaques has described the Minister as being “slippery” with the recruitment numbers. Speaking on Newstalk ZB today, she said his claims that nurses had increased was “creative accounting”.