Surgical admission unit (SAU), theatre and post-anaesthetic care unit (PACU) staff are carrying out three rolling four-hour strikes beginning at 7am and ending at 7pm on Tuesday, June 24.
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa — NZNO delegate Steph Moule says the nurses and HCAs are standing up for their patients, who needed to be safely cared for.
‘Our patients deserve safe staffing levels. Not burnt out nurses and HCAs who don’t have time to give them the care they need.’
“Our patients deserve safe staffing levels. Not burnt out nurses and HCAs who don’t have time to give them the care they need,” she said “Our members will not accept patient safety being threatened by unrealistic budget cuts.”
Moule said overworked nurses and HCAs were also facing an effective pay cut, after Te Whatu Ora offered a one per cent pay rise this year, with a further one per cent next April, in 2024-2026 collective agreement negotiations with NZNO.
‘Our aim is to cause as much disruption to management at the hospital rather than patients.’
“That doesn’t keep up with the cost of living and will see nurses and health care workers and their whānau going backwards financially.”
Thousands of Te Whatu Ora members at nationwide union hui this month called on Te Whatu Ora to return to the bargaining table with a better offer or face nationwide strikes.
At Whangārei Hospital tomorrow, SAU staff strike first at 7am, followed by theatre nurses at 11am then PACU nursing staff at 3pm.
“Our aim is to cause as much disruption to management at the hospital rather than patients, to try and get them to put pressure on Health New Zealand and the Government to get around the table and do something . . . . like hire more staff,” she told Kaitiaki.
Patient safety ‘priority’ — Te Whatu Ora
Te Whatu Ora northern acting deputy chief executive Mike Shepherd told Kaitiaki patient safety was a priority. Contingency plans were in place and Whangārei Hospital had worked with NZNO to ensure life-preserving services were running during the strike.
Shepherd was “disappointed strike action had gone ahead when bargaining was ongoing.
“We believe we have made a fair offer that addressed the union’s priority claims and included targeted and general pay uplifts that were affordable for Health NZ.”
He also disputed the short-staffing complaints, saying Whangārei hospital’s perioperative departments had just four full-time-equivalent (FTE) vacancies, which had now been recruited to.
Shepherd urged nurses to return to the bargaining table. “We remain committed to settlement of the collective agreement.”
Whangārei’s strike action by about 100 staff comes as 370 perioperative nurses from three Auckland hospitals are on strike for a month over what they say is short staffing, forced overtime and incorrect payments.
NZNO delegate Haim Ainsworth said in Auckland lack of staff and an assumption day staff would stay on into the night meant perioperative nurses were forced to stay on after hours and paid a lesser overtime rate, instead of the callback rates they were entitled to.
See also: A striking perioperative nurse shares the challenges she faces every day.