Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

Recent days and indeed months have been intense for nurses with the actions of Te Whatu Ora leaving us stunned, but mostly nurses are angry. In the last six months or so, Te Whatu Ora has consistently made statements about the need to cut costs and spend within their budgets. Just last week, they announce a hiring freeze on non-patient facing roles. Staff told us Te Whatu Ora regions were asked to collectively save $105 million by July using “cost containment”.

This week, news was leaked to us from members that they were not matching graduates into their nursing workforce. It was then revealed they are restricting the employment of graduate nurses again due to budget constraints. But this time, they have come out and publicly claimed NZNO is spreading “untruths” and misinformation. Sad comment given their lack of communication and consultation and an unwillingness to commit to how many would actually be recruited within Te Whatu Ora and how many they would attempt to place in primary health and Aged Care where rarely are there the support mechanisms that graduate nurses need. All round a major mess.

Well, if the past six months are anything to go by, where there is smoke there’s definitely fire! A lot of leaks have across from the government, and they’ve never been refuted. Their modus operandi is always denial, but they never disprove the claims which turn out to true.

Last week, the Government announced there was a surplus of 2000 FTEs and this was done with no prior discussion with the unions. How could there be such a dramatic change when a month prior we were saying that there’s about 4800 nurse shortages. When Te Whatu Ora’s own information accessed under the Official Information Act reported many of the wards across the country reported staff below targets – targets set by Te Whatu ora itself. While the report validated what members were themselves feeling they also knew that the chronic short staffing could increase incidents of adverse events, near misses or care rationing and in some cases patient mortality increases with exposure to increased numbers of shifts where there is understaffing. 

This should not come as a surprise as it’s symptomatic of a system that’s been struggling for so long. The problem has always been no long-term workforce planning. We have always advocated for growing our domestic workforce. Te Whatu Ora has provided up to 80% of the placements for the NETP and NESP. They have the established support, preceptors and infrastructure to support the programme and they don’t have to struggle with the pay challenges that they face in the funded sector.

In a profession that has been fraught with shortages, working extra time and has nursing students struggled during their three years to the extent that some are living in their cars to survive.

On the subject of students, following this latest debacle some have come to me and asked: “How much for a passport? Australia is taking graduates!” They are unhappy and this means we are losing our future workforce.

My belief is that we should be focused on the issues at hand and not slinging mud. We don’t need nurses fighting nurses while Rome burns. Unity is strength and we should be holding on to this, clear up the differences and move forward for the benefit of our whānau, tamariki and communities as a whole.

Kia kaha! I would like to wish our members a happy Matariki or Ngā mihi o Matariki, te tau hou Māori

All over the country, thousands of us from various backgrounds and cultures connected on Budget Day embracing a call to stand up and hikoi against injustice and be a part of the change we want to see.

The national call for action to tāngata whenua and tāngata te Tiriti was heard by Māori and non-Māori underpinned by a growing understanding that “we are the ones that make the country’s wheels turn”. We are the workers who produce much of the country’s GDP. When we stop, the country stops.

There is huge power in the people who stand up and hikoi together. We are not only heard, but we are seen. It reminds me of a song called ‘Stand Up, sung by an incredible singer, Cynthia Erivo…

I’m gonna stand up
Take my people with me
Together we are going
To a brand new home
Far across the river
Do you hear freedom calling?
Calling me to answer
Gonna keep on keepin’ on

Doing what is morally right in a regime that sets the rules to privilege the few, not the many, takes courage. It also is founded on a belief that by standing up against an immoral tide of ‘policy bonfires’ that can only harm, not heal or help solve the health systems decades of political unwillingness to meet the ensuring challenges, that change will and must happen.

Nurses/midwives/health care assistants have huge courage. They demonstrate that every day they go to work to care in a very unsafe, under resourced, understaffed (see the recent OIA findings) healthcare work environment. Recently, a message was personally delivered to the Chief People Officer of Te Whatu Ora, Andrew Slater from delegates of our union.

This was in response to Te Whatu Ora’s leadership deciding to put the budget before the health and wellbeing of patients and the nurses who care for them in a cost containment exercise. Many nurses, midwives and health care assistants shared their feelings about their fears that chronic understaffing combined with a demand to reduce costs by slashing overtime, sick leave cover, and double shifts would harm their patients. Further nurses felt that this would increase the poor morale and drive senior nurses, with all their expertise and commitment to doing the impossible every day, to hikoi, to walk, to leave.

Andrew Slater’s response on RNZ was that it was up to the clinical managers to make that decision, despite the fact that Te Whatu Ora leadership has demanded it of them. Talk about not taking any responsibility. Decisions made by others, about us, without us, often make us take responsibility for something that is not of our making.

But without us, without the 60,000 plus NZNO members, the health system, in all sectors, would immediately halt. That is our power.

We are the largest health workforce. Doctors number about 1,800. Who is at the bedside? Nurses? But are they? Nurses and nursing are often made invisible when politicians and nurse employers talk about “which of the six sickest patients will get the five most closely monitored beds”. Do beds monitor the patients? Do cars go to see the patients in their homes? No. Nurses do the monitoring, the seeing, the caring, the being with, the critical thinking, the decision making, communicating, advocating, negotiating, facilitating, and making a system work for their patients under impossible conditions. When we stand up together and hikoi together, our power is palpable and can move mountains. Our hikoi will start soon in the form of a bus tour throughout the country, encouraging our own members and their communities to stand up with us so that we can realise Ratio Justice through culturally safe nurse patient ratio legislation for all. Together, we stand up at our coming He Tipua – Ratio Justice conference to continue our journey from “a spiritual place, growing without restraint into a desired state of being”. Freed to care. Proud to Nurse!