The new coalition government is being welcomed by nursing unions NZNO and PSA who respectively are looking forward to a health “spending hike” and a “progressive partnership”.
Jane MacGeorge, acting chief executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) said nurses are looking forward to a reversal of the 2017 ‘scrooge health budget’ and $2 billion going back into health. (Labour’s election policy was to allocate an extra $846 million for Vote Health in the 2018-19 Budget – $293 million to “pay back National’s underfunding” and $554 million for “delivering a modern health system” – and it then planned to nearly double that amount to $1.5 billion extra for health in the 2019-20 Budget.)
Glenn Barclay and Erin Polaczuk, the national secretaries of the Public Service Association whose members include mental health and public health nurses, congratulated Labour, New Zealand First and the Greens on forming a new government. “We’re looking at an exciting new progressive partnership between three parties that have campaigned on commitments to deal with the biggest issues affecting New Zealanders,” said Barclay.
MacGeorge said health was the number one election issue and it was looking forward to a ‘funding correction’ in health funding when the new government announces its first Budget in six months time.
“The underfunding of our health services has led several DHBs to cut costs, resulting in fewer nurses being available to ensure safe staffing levels and practice and cut backs in expenditure on basic healthcare tools,” said MacGeorge.“Many nurses we have surveyed said they believe this cost-cutting is affecting the pace of recovery of their patients.
The PSA said it hoped for significant action from the new Government on issues key to its 64,000 members including: “slow wage rises and underfunding in the public sector, housing shortages and affordability issues, growing unmet need in the health system, and equal pay for women and those working in historically female-dominated industries”.
Polaczuk said the country could chose to see the “very real structural problems” in society as daunting but she was confident that the next Prime Minister had “the experience and skill to see the task ahead as an opportunity to build a better country that benefits the many, not just the few.”
MacGeorge said health underfunding “rippled across the system” impacting on the time nurses had to support new graduates, on the ability to attract and retain senior staff and to take up training opportunities. It also had a negative impact on job satisfaction and workplace relations.
“Many DHBs now report no more savings are to be found. There is no more room to cut nurse staffing numbers to save more costs. As state sector employers DHBs know they can’t continue to run their staff ragged, and not take care of their staff well-being,” MacGeorge said.
She said NZNO would present its briefing to the incoming Minister of Health in due course and also hand over the 6000 signed Shout Out for Health letters from members and the public calling for greater public investment in health care.
