Nurses fear for future of healthcare

A career nurse says he fears for fellow nurses and the entire profession as three healthcare unions went on strike on Friday while waiting for new collective agreements.

Allied Health, Mental and Public Health Nursing, and Policy, Advisory, Knowledge and Specialist workers walked off the job across the country, with Marlborough’s picket line set up along State Highway 1 in central Blenheim.

Former mental health nurse, 2015 agreement bargaining representative, and current local addiction services nurse Greg Davies fears for the future viability of nursing in New Zealand and public healthcare in general.

“Anyone in health knows where the system is at, and I fear that this state of public healthcare is becoming the new normal,” Greg says.

He says Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) was introduced after years of lobbying, but the data revealed the sector is still short 1500 nurses daily — 500 nurses per shift nationwide.

“It’s 18 months since the Te Whatu Ora board was sacked and Lester Levy brought in as commissioner, who stated there are 3000 too many nurses over budget. It’s taken the NZ Nurses Organisation those same 18 months to get statistics released,” Greg says.

“Now results have shown we’re telling the truth about being chronically short staffed, yet many of those measurements have been pulled.

“Statements like Lester’s or similar from government officials don’t endear senior management to their workers or make healthcare an attractive career option.”
Greg says while a wage rise in line with the cost of living would be “attractive” — securing a 0.7% increase during bargaining in 2015 — his strike action is driven by local experiences, announcements of 0.6 FTE part-time roles, and his belief in nursing as a valuable profession.

“When many new nursing graduates are being offered 0.6 FTE roles that can’t pay the bills, only half of those graduates getting employed in the field, and basically no support staff, who in their right mind would study nursing? And how many of those would stay in New Zealand long term?”

He recalls a recent example of a second-year student nurse who spent three weeks unable to access computer systems independently because there was no IT support to provide a login.

He says external education and travel for study have been scrapped, and while there’s no official ban on advertising vacancies, the process is bogged down in bureaucracy.

“The government says there’s no impact on the medical front line from cuts, while leaving our student as a bystander.”

Greg says he moved from mental health to addiction services because he was “really disenfranchised”.

Marlborough is supposed to have 12 mental health staff working every sixth weekend, but numbers have dropped as low as seven, leaving staff on call every third weekend in high-intensity situations.

“Not a month ago the current Health Minister Simeon Brown cut the ribbon on the new Wairau Hospital kidney dialysis unit, which is fantastic and driven locally by Marlborough Primary Health, but it’s only funded for the next two years,” Greg says.

“From where the minister was cutting the ribbon, he would have been able to spot the gutters on the mental health ward falling off — they have been for years because we don’t have the maintenance staff hours.

“I’m glad I’m towards the end of my career, out of fear for the future of the nursing profession.”