Nurses in grassroots health care have dished on their pay rates — potentially revealing why 80 percent of them dream of leaving the sector.
Kua hihiratia manawa e tētahi tirohanga taunga NZNO hou o ngā tapuhi hauora tuatahi e 720 mō ngā take pūtea, wanea tūranga me te taumaha o te mahi i te rāngai.
A new NZNO survey of 720 primary health care members has taken the pulse of the sector covering pay, job satisfaction and workload.
Nō konā ka whakaatu ko te 80 ōrau o ngā tapuhi e whakaaro ana mō ā rātou wehe i ō rātou tūranga i ngā marama e ono kua hipa.
The results showed that 80 percent of those nurses had thought about leaving their jobs in the last six months.
Heoti, ka kīia e te 78 ōrau i pupuke ake ā rātou mahi i taua wā noki. Kua kīia te 1.5 ōrau i heke iho ā rātou mahi.
Meanwhile 78 percent said their workload increased in the same period. About 1.5 percent said it had gone down.
Ka whakaarohia e te tata ki te haurua o ngā tapuhi hauora tuatahi mō te wehe i te whenua katoa hei mahi — ko te 42 ōrau te rahi.
The number of primary health nurses thinking about leaving Aotearoa to work elsewhere was approaching half of the workforce — 42 percent.
Ka kitea tētahi tuwhiri mō ō rātou hiahia kia wehe i te whenua nō roto i ō rātou utu mahi — kua whākia e te 639 o ngā kaiurupare mō ō rātou utu ā-hāora.
Clues to why nurses were thinking of exiting the sector could be found in their pay — 639 of the respondents sharing their hourly rate.
He āputa i waenga i te pāpātanga utu mahi tau waenga o ngā tapuhi hauora tuatahi me ngā tapuhi Te Whatu Ora, e whiriwhiri ana mō ō rātou utu anō, mai i te 8.13 ōrau (tapuhi taumata 6) ki te neke atu i te 11 ōrau mō ngā tapuhi e kaiārahi ana.
The gap between median primary care nurse rates and Te Whatu Ora nurses, currently negotiating their pay up, ranged between 8.13 percent (step 6 nurses) to more than 11 percent for nurses in leadership roles.
Ka nui ake ngā pāpātanga katoa o ngā nēhi Te Whatu Ora.
The gap favoured Te Whatu Ora nurses.
Mā ngā tau/By the numbers
Ka whakatairitea te pāpātanga hauora tuatahi (PH) ki ngā pāpātanga Health NZ (HNZ). Kua whakamahia e te tirohanga taunga te pāpātanga tau waenga ā-hāora mō te PH.
- Taumata 1, PH — $32.78. HNZ $36.32. Rerekētanga: 10.8 ōrau
- Taumata 3, PH — $37.71. HNZ $41.48. Rerekētanga: 10.00 ōrau
- Taumata 5, PH — $44.27. HNZ $48.35. Rerekētanga: 9.22 ōrau
- Taumata 7, PH — $46.96. HNZ $51.17. Rerekētanga: 8.97 ōrau
- Coordinator/lead nurse/ nurse team lead or similar. PH — $48.97. HNZ $54.66. Rerekētanga: 11.63 ōrau
Mō te tūtohi katoa e tae rā anō ana ki ngā poutama katoa rapua ki konei.
The full table including all steps can be found here.
‘Ko au tētahi o te 80 ōrau”
Hei tā te māngai NZNO hauora tuatahi a Tracey Morgan ki Kaitiaki, koia hoki tētahi i whakaaro mō tāna wehe i te rāngai.
NZNO primary health care spokesperson Tracey Morgan told Kaitiaki she herself was one of those nurses who’d thought about leaving the sector.
“Ko te mea e aukati ana i ahau ko te whakaaro ina wehe ahau, koia tērā tētahi pukenga nēhi anō tē mahi i Aotearoa, ā, e kore tērā e whakatika i ō ā mātou tūroro raruraru.”
“The thing that stops me is that if I was to go that’s one less skilled nurse here in Aotearoa, and that’s not going to fix the problem for our patients.”
I pupuke ake te taumaha o te mahi e pīkaungia ana e ngā tapuhi hauora tuatahi — inarā hoki i ngā ratonga taiwhenua me ngā ratonga ā-iwi, hei tāna.
The primary health workload had gone up — especially in the likes of rural services and iwi providers, Morgan said.
“Ka mōrearea te rāngai hauora tuatahi, ka whati tā tātou rautaki tahua, kei roto tātou i te kōpaka kaimahi. Kāhore i te tika mō ā mātou tūroro e tātari ana mō ngā wiki e toru kia kite i te tākuta.”
“Primary health is in crisis, our funding model’s broken, we’ve got chronic staff shortages. It’s not fair for our patients, they’re having to wait up to three weeks to get into a GP.”
I te Mei i hanga te Kāwanatanga Haumi i te ture hohoro, he kore whiriwhiri, i tata mua i Te Tahua 2025: kia turakina ngā kerēme e 33 mō te utu tautika e tae rā anō ana ki ngā mema hauora tuatahi NZNO.
In May, the Coalition Government passed legislation, without consultation, ahead of Budget 2025: axing 33 pay equity claims including NZNO primary health members.
Kia whakatikaina te kore whakaute ki ā ngā nēhi hauora tuatahi mahi e te utu tautika, ka kī a ia. “Ināianei he hakahaka tonu ō mātou utu ā hāora mō te wā roa ake.”
Pay equity would have corrected undervaluing of primary health nurses’ work, she said. “Now our wages in primary health are going to be lower for longer.”
Ahakoa tā te Minita Hauora a Simeon Brown kī ka riringitia mai te pūtea e te Kāwanatanga ki te rāngai, e kore taua pūtea e “māturu iho ki ngā tapuhi”.
Health Minister Simeon Brown might have said the Government was pouring money into the sector, but “it doesn’t trickle down to the nurses”.
“Primary health is in crisis, our funding model’s broken, we’ve got chronic staff shortages.”
E mate ana kia whakapau pūtea ko ngā GP hei kawe i ō rātou utu, hei tāna. “Kua mīere ngā tapuhi, kua pau te hau.”
GPs were having to use extra funding to cover other expenses, she said. “The nurses are burnt out, they’re tired.”
Ko ngā tapuhi whare haumanu ko ō rātou ake tīma pūkenga maha (he rōpū o ngā mātanga nō ngā umanga maha), hei tā Morgan. “Ko koe te tangata ka rapu i ēnei pūkenga, i runga anō i āu mahi o ia te rā, i runga anō hoki i āu kōrero waea, i runga i tāu i atawhai ai i ngā tāngata e uru mai nei.”
Practice nurses were their own multidisciplinary team (professionals from different fields), said Morgan. “You’re the one that has to go and source all of those people, on top of you nine to five job, on top of your phone calls, on top of the walk-ins.”
Ka kīia e ia e matea ana te manawanui a ngā rōpū tōrangapū katoa hei hanga i tētahi rautaki tahua e toitū nei.
She said there had to be a commitment across political parties to create a sustainable funding model.
I whai wāhi NZNO ki tētahi ātete ā-ture a ngā uniana maha i Te Kōti Matua i Pōneke ki ō te Kāwanatanga huringa utu tautika.
NZNO is part of a multi-union challenge in The High Court in Wellington against the Government’s pay equity changes.