District nurse and NZNO delegate Maree Vincent. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Graham
Spinal patients having to wait for specialist care, psychiatrists struggling to keep up with the workload and students nurses eyeing up Australia before they are even fully trained - these were just some of the stories shared at a meeting about the health system in Christchurch.
The meeting was organised by the Nurses Organisation, as a chance for people to come together and talk about the pressures they are facing.
After 18 years working as a district nurse, union delegate Maree Vincent said she has never seen conditions so bad.
"Stressful, burnt out nurses, huge patient loads, pay inequities, no pay parity, and funding not being dropped down to the primary health to keep going."
She said one of the joys of her role was getting to know her patients, but that was harder when workers were increasingly short on time.
Trainee nurse and the national student representative for ARA polytech, Dawn Blyth said student nurses were also feeling the stressed, with many struggling with the high cost of living while doing unpaid clinical placements and no certainty of a job at the end of their training.
"Even last year in our first year, a lot of students in our cohort were talking then - I'm going to go to Australia, because the pay is better and there are more jobs over there," said Blyth.
Carin Conaghan is a psychiatrist at Christchurch's Hillmorton Hospital and a delegate with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.
Christchurch psychiatrist and ASMS delegate Carin Conaghan. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Graham
She said her sector, too, was under more pressure than ever.
"Our staff are having increased workloads," Conaghan said, "in terms of the number of people they are managing. The people that we are seeing are coming in more unwell. And that is impacting on staff's well being."
She said more psychiatrists were leaving the public sector each year than joining it.
Conaghan said in the past, people accepted that the pay in New Zealand was less than in countries such as Australia or the UK, but the working conditions were the draw card.
But that was no longer the case.
She said psychiatrists were getting paid up to 60 percent less in New Zealand than in Australia.
Andrew Hall, national programme manager of the New Zealand Spinal Trust, said the problems within the health sector for people with spinal injuries could feel overwhelming.
"Waitlist to get into the spinal service, two spinal unit(s) in New Zealand both of which have long waitlists," Hall said. "New acutes are waiting in the acute hospitals to come across to the units because of a lack of space. And some innovative things having to be done to manage people in private hospitals, for people who would normally be in care in the spinal units."
Health administrator and PSA delegate Nancy McShane said she and others fought for 13 years to get pay equity for administration and clerical workers, which was settled in 2022.
Health administrator and PSA delegate Nancy McShane. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Graham
In 2023 McShane received a Queen's Service Medal for Services to Women and Equal Pay for that work.
She said the recent changes to the pay equity system will have a terrible impact on the health system.
"I think about the care workers in particular. This really angers me. They had a claim before us. They opened the door to all the other pay equity claims, and now they have had the rug pulled out from under their feet," McShane said.
She said rest home care was already in crisis, and the changes to the Equal Pay Amendment Act will only make the situation worse.
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