While Whangārei Hospital has made a good effort to hire more nurses this year, recent cuts by Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora mean nurses who are off sick are unable to be replaced, Thorn said.
“We’re really concerned about that going into winter, when we have increased staff sickness, increased patients and increased acuity.”
A key concern is that Kiwi nurses will move to Australia where safe ratios are in place in some states, she said.
A Whangārei Hospital medical ward nurse, Coral Headey, said she has often seen nurses put in dangerous situations due to the high number of patients they have to look after.
“This Government is making it worse because they’re not allowing us to hire staff or allowing us to do overtime.”
Headey said the situation is so bad, nurses’ mental health is affected and some become suicidal.
“We’re taught that we’re there to care for people but all we do is damage control,” she said.
“It’s really upsetting; they can’t justify funding doctors and nurses but they’re spending money of getting new uniforms so it says just ‘Health New Zealand’ and not ‘Te Whatu Ora’.”
Mental health and public health are struggling to recruit and retain nurses, said Mark Furey, a delegate for the Public Service Association which covers these roles.
He also has seen this impact nurses’ mental health.
“They get into such a state that they are basically drowning in work and they find it difficult to co-ordinate anything else ... More than once I’ve had the discussion of people talking about suicide.”
Furey said the problems can not just be covered over, they need to be addressed with proper funding.
The nurse rally comes just days after a strike by junior doctors, who are protesting pay cuts to specialty junior doctors and GPs.
The Government will deliver Budget 24 on May 30.
Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.
