Nursing union NZNO is seeking higher levels talks with district health boards about feared job losses after media spats in recent weeks.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) issued a series of press releases last month indicating nursing positions were likely to be lost at budget-stretched Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay District Health Boards.
Boards responded through the media saying their budgets were in the black and job loss predictions were premature. Concerns have also followed Waikato District Health Board announcing it needed to trim $20 million from its budget. The differences of opinion continued in the media as NZNO members met to ratify their latest collective agreement (see other story).
Lesley Harry, NZNO industrial advisor, said the union was still concerned about the impact of the Minister of Health’s directive for district health boards to stay within their budgets and wanted to talk with DHBs facing cutting costs to stay in the black.
Graham Dyer, a spokesman for the 20 DHBs and the Hutt Valley DHB chief executive, said he believed there was “a little bit of mischief” at the timing of the media tit-for-tatting.
“Every year, we go through an annual review of what our resources are and how we use those resources and at times that will mean change.
“But overall the trajectory is that there is increasing numbers of nurses in the workforce.”
Harry said the union wanted to talk directly with the boards involved rather than through the media and would be seeking dialogue through collective agreement’s bipartite forums so it could establish the size of the problem.
“We want to try and resolve the situation without cutting nursing positions and endangering patient safety,” said Harry.
“Our members are already telling us that they are working under increasing stress now. We won’t be sitting on our hands and watch cuts to nursing positions by DHBs.”
NZNO said 35 staff jobs were to go across all disciplines and a sinking lid on recruitment was planned in older persons, mental health and allied health services at Hawke’s Bay DHB.
Chris McKenna, the DHB’s director of hospital nursing, said no decisions had been made to cut nursing services or jobs in the region but it was looking at ways of operating “more effectively and efficiently” so it could continue to invest and improve its capital infrastructure.
"We will be looking at making sure we have the right resources in the right places to make sure patients are treated more quickly through a quality service," McKenna said.
Harry said the union also had concerns for nursing and midwifery jobs in Waikato.
Sue Hayward, Waikato DHB director of nursing, said it was too early to speculate on nurse job losses with services only beginning to develop plans that could achieve budget savings.
NZNO said Bay of Plenty’s director of nursing Julie Robinson had advised members that nursing positions would be dis-established.
Julie Robinson had not respond to Nursing Review questions at time of writing but was quoted in the Bay of Plenty Times as saying staff had been asked to identify efficiencies but this would never be at the expense of patient safety or care.
