Nelson Hospital nurse and NZNO delegate Amanda Field, who was part of the organising team, said the huge turnout to the “hands around the hospital” event for safer staffing was “overwhelming”.
“A few of us got quite tearful about it, seeing everybody coming out to support us,” Field told Kaitiaki. “Sometimes when you’re in the trenches, you think ‘is anyone else concerned about this?’ ”
‘We feel like we’ve not had our voices heard for such a long time — that was what caused the emotion.’
Passionate Nelson locals joined workers from several health unions, NZNO — Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa, the Public Service Association (PSA) and Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), to encircle large chunks of the ageing hospital.
“We feel like we’ve not had our voices heard for such a long time — that was what caused the emotion. These people hear us and they see us,” Field said. “It felt uplifting. Seeing the community support was a huge buzz.”
The ‘new hospital’ promise
Nelson was first promised a new hospital 23 years ago. In 2023, the Labour-led Government committed $1.1 billion to its redevelopment.
However last year the National-led Government shelved that plan in favour of a series of “small builds”. But NZNO delegate Amanda Field said locals and staff were not in favour of this option and were becoming frustrated.
“They are frustrated they have been made to wait since 2002 and waiting lists are impacting on the health of patients and health-care workers’ wellbeing.”
The protest came after senior Nelson Hospital doctors and nurses, including NZNO delegate Gemma Fern, went public to warn they were at “rock bottom”, with a lack of staff and beds impacting on patient care, safety and waiting times throughout the hospital.
‘Why isn’t safe staffing a target? Why isn’t patient safety a target?’
Field said when staff were sick, there was nobody to replace them, while recruiting new staff took up to nine months due to budget delays. “Meanwhile, the work carries on,” she said.
“What we’re highlighting is that Nelson Hospital needs to be staffed — why isn’t safe staffing a target? Why isn’t patient safety a target?”
A new hospital was also needed, after more than 20 years of broken promises, she said.
“We are currently looking after people in a run-down, falling down building, so we need a commitment for a new hospital build and for the hospital to be staffed.”
‘We’re taking it extremely seriously’ — Te Whatu Ora
Te Whatu Ora deputy chief executive for Te Waipounamu (South Island) Martin Keogh said the organisation was aware of Nelson Hospital’s long-standing issues and staff concerns.
“I want to acknowledge the impact that delays in care have on patients and their families and reiterate that we are taking the situation at Nelson Hospital extremely seriously,” Keogh told Kaitiaki today.
There were a range of initiatives underway, with more coming, to “help alleviate pressure on our staff so they can continue to provide quality care for our community”, he said.
“We have great people working at Nelson Hospital delivering fantastic care to their community despite this long-standing access to care issue; we are truly grateful for their commitment and compassion.”
Keogh said a support team was working with staff, and would continue to do so over the coming weeks, to review all issues that had been raised. It would assess the appropriateness of work already underway to address access-to-care issues at Nelson, and provide reports and recommendations in the next month on any other concerns.
Since staff spoke out, Te Whatu Ora has made funding available to recruit registrars and senior medical officers across general, surgical, intensive care, emergency and oncology; as well as for nurses in intensive care, oncology and patient-at-risk team (which supports staff caring for acutely unwell patients across wards). There were also other initiatives such as outsourcing surgery, weekend super-clinics and opening up bed options, the Nelson Mail has reported.
‘I’ve seen our staff really struggling in there to give the care that they want to give.’
Another Nelson nurse, Maria Briggs, told the crowd staff no longer had time to sit and hold their patients’ hands.
“I’ve seen our staff really struggling in there to give the care that they want to give,” The Nelson Mail reported.
Cancer survivor Daniel Walker — whose testicular cancer spread after his urgent referral was mistakenly downgraded leading to a nine-week wait for a hospital appointment — said what happened to him was “avoidable not regrettable” — as described by Minister of Health Simeon Brown — and the people of Nelson deserved better.
“We’re not going to take this anymore,” he told the crowd.
‘Please don’t tell us to work smarter and harder because we’re working as smart and hard as we can.’
Nurses, doctors ‘incredibly brave’
Nelson MP, Labour’s Rachel Boyack told Stuff nurses and doctors had been “incredibly brave” speaking out.
“I think that has given the rest of the community the courage to talk about what they’ve seen, and when we all stand together that’s when we can make some change.”
Nelson Hospital anaesthetist Katie Ben told the crowd staff were working as hard as they could and needed support — not told to “get over it“.
The Nelson event follows similar “hands around our health services” ones in Palmerston North and Napier last month, where members of the public joined hands with health workers to form a human chain outside their local hospitals and health services.
Patient advocacy group, Patient Voice Aotearoa, has been organising the events. Its chair Malcolm Mulholland told a Palmerston North crowd the hospital’s situation was “pretty dire”, with no after-hours clinic past 8pm and staff shortages across many departments.
NZNO delegate and Manawatū nurse Jane Swift told Massey University student magazine Massive it was important for people to be able to get health care when they needed it and quickly before ailments “become more sinister”.
And in Napier, where 24/7 after-hours medical services are being cut and replaced with telehealth services, nurse Nayda Heays warned the move would likely result in more preventable deaths — especially for Māori, who faced higher economic challenges and often lacked transport to hospital.
Mulholland is travelling the country to gather signatures for his petition, the Buller Declaration, calling for urgent investment in the country’s health-care system. He launched the petition last year, after the small Westport town lost its after-hours medical service.
Mulholland estimated about 20,000 signatures had so far been gathered.
Mulholland’s late wife Wiki died from breast cancer in 2021, after a struggle to access potentially life-prolonging but unfunded drugs.