Nurses and their employers will meet today in a new bid to resolve a deep dispute and prevent strike action. They'll sit down together on Tuesday to explore whether to set up the independent panel Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has suggested.
Nurse's Organisation spokesperson Cee Payne told Morning Report today that employers have said they just did not have the money to pay what had been tabled at a claim and were waiting for the government to sort out funding.
"DHBs have always said to us that they just can't afford to pay."
Ms Payne said the new government had signalled it was going to invest in health funding and the union believed it had a strong case for nurses to be paid more to increase the workforce.
Ms Ardern told Morning Report the government was aware that the issue was that DHBs were in deficit, and it was currently working hard on a plan to fund and reinvest in the health sector again.
"We've committed to reinvest in health services. I didn't realise how bad the situation was - particularly on the capital side of the ledger - but equally, just in terms of what how DHBs are operating on, we're trying to resolve that."
