Kiyota.
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. More than thirty six thousand Nurses Organization members nationwide went on strike yesterday and they will walk off the job again tomorrow. Health New Zealand says the action could disrupt treatment services and care over the entire week, especially for patients with
non urgent needs. It's while the Health Minister, Simeon Brown has criticized the strikes, saying they'll disrupt more than thirteen thousand surgeries and appointments, all this after a year of deadlocked negotiations between the union and Health end Z. Today, on the Front Page, union delegate and healthcare assistant at christ Church Hospital, our deech joins us to tell us what it's like on the ground and at the picket line. So, first off, ou tell me why have nurses decided to go on strike?
Okay, so nurses, midwives and HCAs that are insident members are striking essentially because our health system has completely overwhelmed staffing levels, an atrocious state and short staffing is yeah, it's chronic. It's been ongoing for quite some time and We've just had enough of it. We're tired Christish Hospital where our work over the weekend has been in code black. The hospital is bursting at the seams and wards are working chronically understaffed, day in, day out, and people have
had enough. I'm on the bargaining team with insident. I know we've been in bargaining now for since September last year, so roughly a year. And if that's order have failed to address any of our key claims.
I mean, this isn't the first time we've spoken about understaffing issues. Why hasn't been anything been done?
Well?
I think you know, well, I guess the main reason is funding.
You know, we have we have a government that's looking at you know that is underfunded health. It's been an ongoing issue for quite some time from successive governments. This government is interested in in you know, sterity measures and cuts and that have impacted the front.
Line and health. And it's it's all around budgets.
It's all around sort of how much to spend, and so it's not addressing what is fundamental, which is having enough staff to give the care that we want to give.
Health New Zealand says that the shift below target or the SBT data is a moment in time measure and not a reliable indicator of understaffing. Now, first off, can you ex explained to me what that data shows and how do you respond to that? Reasoning from health en Z I.
Mean c CDM or care capacity demand management as a tool through trenk care that measures the acuity of patients and determines the number of staff that are needed on any particular shift. The nursing stuff input into that data ongoing throughout the shift, so it's not like a once office. It's a continuous process and that that is calculated and measures through f FDA calculations how many staff were short.
You know, previously the up until their hiring freeze, FDA calculations have provided uplifts and staffing in many many areas because of the of the reason that.
It's shown that we're understaffed.
So, you know, being cynical, you could say that, you know, one of the reasons is because it's that they wanted to get rid of CCDM and trend care or to sort of modify it is because it's it's showing the gaps that exist and that that doesn't measure up to the budget they've allowed.
So Health New Zealand is also accusing nurses of putting politics ahead of patients. How does the union respond to this kind of criticism.
Well, I mean it's it's it's political and as much as it's about you know, a public health system and the need for a good public health system. And it's that have hit in the government who have become overly and politically involved in this in this dispute, they're the ones that have essentially changed it up and had Judith Collins interfere with the Public Services Minister.
You know.
So I guess you could say you could argue that that they've made it political in their approach.
It's not all about money, though, is it. I mean that chronic understaffing. How do you how do we address that? Do you need a gar and tea I guess from Health New Zealand to say, well, we promise to hire x amount by the end of the year or by year's time or something. I mean, how do we get around that?
Yeah, I mean in terms of if you're talking about wages, it's you know, obviously the cost of living is impacting on our members and you know, we want to we want to wage increase that keeps up with and addresses inflation.
You know, won't being off for so far as essentially a pay cut.
But in terms of like for safe staffing, we need much more money put into the public health system and we need order to commit to continuing the CCDM trend here.
And also we have a plane on bargaining around culturally appropriate ratios that would be basically a safety net below the care capacity demand management process, so that we would have a net that would ensure that a certain number of health messes and HCAs are there to provide the care that we want to give and the care that advice for a good you know person outcome.
Right.
So those processes that you mentioned that kind of mathematically we figures out how many nurses should be on a shift or something like that. I mean, on any given day at the moment, can you give me an example of how that isn't working out well?
I mean, I can give you just one an incdotal example of like where I worked that, you know, especially on night shift, Like night shifts have been chronically short staff for some time and and over this this you know winter period. I mean, it's not really the winter period because the the the pressures on that house system of we've seen these numbers even before winter hit, but over winter, you know, the staffing has become dire.
Like you know, we're meant to be.
Staffed to to five r ns and two h c's on night shift, and regularly one of the is redeployed, so we are four our ends on instead of five, and after a certain time there's no h gas on the floor. So you know, like that's that's just one area, and that's that's across the board. Like we're we're staffing and redeployed to try and fill the gaps.
But when there's not enough staff, everywhere gets short.
What are some ongoing challenges that nurses are facing that impact I guess retention.
Well, I guess a remuneration package that that meets the cost of living and that that makes it easier, especially for our members that are you know, single mothers or single fathers, and that the struggling at the moment on a sole income.
You know, so wages essential to keeping people here. But also when.
You're in an environment where day in day out, you're you're becoming anxious and fearful of going to it because of the pressures and you're knowing how understaffed it is and how busy it is, people burn out and people sort of like want to move away from that obviously, and so you know, when when they see conditions and wages in Australia to be a lot better than they're going to want to move to that. So it's something and they're interest for I guess. But yeah, like we
don't want to see that. We want to see, you know, a well funded, functioning public health system that retains our staff. I mean, another aspect of the pressures that people are under when we are short staffed is the culture that develops and it becomes very cutthroat and it's something that we need to address.
So but yeah, I guess.
Also you have to look at the fact that our hospitals are overwhelmed because patients are becoming more acutely unwell. We have an aging population. Successive governments have failed to address that. I mean, the social determinants of health, whether it's housing, whether it's poverty, whether it's homelessness, those sorts of things. If we had a if we had a well functioning primary health system, we'd be keeping people well and longer and keeping them.
Out of hospitals.
I mean, the result of our hospital has been overwhelmed as the result of brought me healthcare failing.
We're hair not only for ourselves, but we hare for our patients as well, because they deserve better care than what we're able to provide in these conditions. And so we've been pretty clear with our message. We need better staffing, we want nursing ratios, and we want fear pay and so far the government hasn't delivered on any of that. So we've had to take this pretty historic action of two day strikes, and Samian Brown has been misrepresenting the
truth and the reality. Up on his window today he's got a sign saying that our strike is delaying thousands of surgeries. I think he's got thirteen hundred surgeries. But what he's not saying is the reason there's so many backlogs, just because the government has failed to deliver on those outcomes.
I saw that Health Minister Simeon Brown pointed out that the average salary for a registered nurse is now over one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year, including overtime and allowances.
Is this correct?
Well?
I would say to that that it's actually deliberate disinformation because in order for your average nurse to earn that much, that have to be working, that have to be a senior nurse to start with, that have to be working, you know, every every shift that earns a penalty, like weekends and night shift, that kind of thing, and it's that's that's just you know, there's only a very very small number of members that would even earn that much,
So it's just deliberately you know, disinformation. I would say that sort of is leading the public Australia. And then when you look at you know, like the other members of ends that you know that HCA is that don't as much as are in so I mean what they're
in in is way less. It's only you know, in the last round of bargaining last time that some HbAS were brought up to the living wage and you know there's there's the risk of HbA members falling below that again, so you know that's that's a significant number of our membership as well.
Do you get frustrated when you see things like that because you know, the average New Zealander who doesn't really know anything or doesn't have a nurse in their life say sees, ah, well, they must be doing it right, because the average wages over you know, there's six figures or they see something like, oh, graduates are getting you know, seventy odd thousand dollars a year straight off the bat, Like it must be frustrating that those figures aren't laid
out like that, Like, no, not everyone is going to be getting those overnight shifts or weekend shift or Sunday shifts.
Yeah, yeah, it is.
It is very frustrating, and I mean it's a deliberate take to you know, to put out that spin.
I mean, this scivement's very good at it.
You know that, like I said, it's a very small number that would get anywhere near in that amount.
And you know, like we.
All need, you know, we acknowledge that, like you know, many many working people are struggling at the moment of the cost of living crisis, and you know, we're not the only ones that are that are needing leading wage increases that sort of interest and inflation and things like that. So yeah, that's it's disappointing, but it's not unexpected, I guess.
And what about the claims that nurses are putting patients at risk by striking or going on two strikes in one week, which is unprecedented. But I suppose one wouldn't become a nurse if you didn't like people.
Yeah, I mean, obviously we're in this job because we care. You know, on a personal level, I get a reward out of caring for people. It's something that you know, like it's inherent in me. But I mean that's like caring profession is. It's a role for people that care.
I mean, I guess it's hard to put into words, how you know, overworked and overwhelmed. You guys, what's it been like on the picket lines.
The response has been great.
We've had the firefighters here again massive respect and solidarity with the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Service, they union, they've they've and we've had the representatives from other unions, from the from the teachers and senior doctors, that sort of stuff. I mean, we've had a lot of support, a lot
of public support. Our pickets in March has been very rowdy and very excited, but you know, members, members are angry and they're frustrated, and you know, they want to see our claims addressed.
And Lastly, now if you could waive a magic wand what needs to be done tomorrow in terms of bargaining.
I think that we need to be sitting back at the table and we need to be having to take our claims seriously and addressing them. You know, we have a number of claims that would go a long way to it dressing the issues around staffing that they're they're failing to accept an address, So you know that that would be a first good step would be to sit back down at the table.
We want to.
Sit at the table and negotiate, but if they're not prepared to even contemplate and accept some of our claims, then there's there seems to be no point because they're not they're not coming to the parties. So you know, that's what we need is we need them to to accept that, you know, what we're saying is correct and that they that they need to address our claims.
Thanks for joining us out.
That's okay, Thank you very much.
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at nzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Jane Ye and Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.