Statement attributable to Dr Dale Bramley, Health New Zealand Chief Executive

Health New Zealand is calling on the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) to lift the strike notices and work together on outstanding issues to avoid impacting thousands of patients.

We have listened to our staff, and I want to reassure them that we are committed to working with NZNO on the issues they have raised around safe staffing and the employment of graduate nurses.

We are committed to ensuring that we have the right staff and skill mix to deliver quality, safe patient care.

Clinical outcomes in our hospitals which are sensitive to staffing numbers show that patient safety is stable overall.

Patient safety measures such as in-hospital deaths, cardiac arrests in hospitals and pressure injuries have been stable or improved over the last five years.

Another measure relevant to nurse staffing is bed numbers. In the last three years, bed numbers across our hospitals have grown by 175 but the number of nurses we employ has increased by over 3,000.

We are concerned that should the strike action go ahead, it will cause further disruption and delay to patients waiting for treatment, disrupt treatment for those already in hospital and set back our work to provide New Zealanders with improved access to care.

It is estimated that 2,250 planned procedures, 3,600 first specialist appointments and 8,000 follow-up appointments will have to be postponed should strike action go ahead on 2 & 4 September. This causes further delay for patients who have been waiting for their appointments and procedures.

Health NZ is committed to reaching a settlement with NZNO and we believe bargaining is the most-effective way to resolve the outstanding issues and avoid disruption to patients and the wider health system.

We encourage the NZNO to immediately return to the bargaining table and lift the strike notices.

Note: For information on the role of a Health NZ nurse, and the salary and benefits see here: Factsheet