Nurses are calling the Health Minister’s wage claims “deliberate disinformation” as nationwide strikes continue this week.
About 36,000 unionised nurses went on strike from 7am to 11pm on Tuesday and will again on Thursday.
Simeon Brown has criticised the strikes, saying the action will mean thousands of New Zealanders face more disruption.
“We value our nurses and the vital care they give patients. That’s why our Government has invested heavily in our nursing workforce. The average salary for a registered nurse is now over $125,000 a year, including overtime and allowances, which aligns with base pay in New South Wales,” he said.
But that figure is disputed by those on the frontline.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) delegate and healthcare assistant at Christchurch Hospital, Al Dietschin, told The Front Page only a small number of members would earn that much.
“They’d have to be a senior nurse to start with. They’d have to be working every shift that earns a penalty, like weekends and night shifts... I would say that sort of is leading the public astray.
“Then, when you look at other members of NZNO who are HCAs [health care assistants] who don’t earn as much as RNs [registered nurses]. What they’re earning is way less. It’s only in the last round of bargaining that some HCAs were brought up to the living wage. And there’s a risk of HCA members falling below that again.
“It is very frustrating, and it’s a deliberate tactic to put out that spin. This Government’s very good at it,” he said.
Dietschin said there has been chronic understaffing, which has become dangerous.
He said where he works, the night shift has been short-staffed for some time.
“We’re meant to be staffed with five RNs and two HCAs - and regularly, staff is redeployed. So, we’re four RNs, instead of five, and after a certain time, there are no HCAs on the floor. That’s just one area. And that’s across the board,” he said.
Health New Zealand has said there is no way of determining how many nurses, doctors, mental health professionals, or allied health staff should be rostered to work each day.
The agency’s executive national director, Dr Richard Sullivan, said they use a range of tools, including ones based on historical data, as well as frontline leader judgement.
“There are significant challenges in our current approach to safe care methodologies, including variable data quality. For this reason, we don’t believe the current tool, which we don’t believe is used by any other country as a national tool, is fit-for-purpose,” he said.
One of the tools used to try and work this out is Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM), Dietschin said, which measures the acuity of patients and determines the number of staff needed on any given shift.
“Nursing staff input data ongoing throughout the shift... It’s a continuous process, and that is calculated and measured through FTE calculations, how many staff we’re short.
“Previously, up until the hiring freeze, FTE calculations have provided uplifts in staffing in many areas because of the reason it’s shown we’re understaffed.
“Being cynical, you could say one of the reasons that they want to get rid of CCDM, or modify it, is because it’s showing the gaps that exist and that doesn’t measure up to the budget they’ve allowed,” he said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about nurses’ call to head back to the negotiation table.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.