Simeon Brown has called for the cancellation of proposed strikes next month. Photo: Calvin Samuel / RNZ
Health Minister Simeon Brown has criticised the nurses' union on Thursday afternoon, saying health workers are playing politics with patients' lives.
The NZNO union cancelled a two-hour strike for perioperative, theatres and radiology services in Christchurch about 45 minutes before it was due to begin on Wednesday
In a statement, Health New Zealand said there was no time to re-instate postponed appointments, affecting 85 patients.
Health NZ confirmed nurses had, in July, been offered a pay increase of two percent this year and one percent next year on top of step-progression increases, with two additional "lump sum" payments of $325 over the next two years.
Brown called a media conference with less than three hours' notice to call for the cancellation of more strikes planned for next month, saying they would "cause real, avoidable harm to more than 13,000 patients across the country".
"As a direct result of the union's actions, more than 2200 surgeries will be canceled," he said. "Around 3600 first-specialist appointments will be delayed and about 8000 critical follow-up specialist appointments will be pushed back."
He said the union had "put politics ahead of patients". The cancellation of the Christchurch strike was also "staggering" and he focused particularly on a social-media comment posted by one union member.
"While union members walked back into work and collected a full day's pay, those patients lost the care they desperately needed.
"A recent post on the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Facebook group suggested the late notice was a deliberate tactic to 'create chaos and keep health New Zealand guessing', even praising it as 'bloody beautiful tactics, comrades'."
He claimed such tactics were "unacceptable" and "needs to be called out".
"I ask them to tell that to the faces of the 13,000 patients, who are having their care cancelled, because they will see this as, frankly, them losing out on the care that they've already been waiting far too long for.
"This is, quite frankly, playing politics with people's lives and it makes me furious. We value our nurses and the vital care that they provide."
He pushed back, when reporters pointed out it was just one post by a member in a private group, rather than a statement from the union itself.
"Well, I'm sorry, that is what the union did," he said. "The union cancelled the strike 45 minutes before the strike came into effect and that meant that 85 patients in Canterbury yesterday could not have their care rebooked.
"If you look at their Facebook group, it was all about making sure that they kept health New Zealand guessing."
Brown's statements followed Education Minister Erica Stanford and Public Service Minister Judith Collins saying secondary school teachers striking was "premeditated" and a "political stunt".
The union plans to strike next Wednesday over a one percent pay-rise offer, but the ministers said striking was deeply unfair on parents and students.
Collins told Morning Report that teacher strikes were becoming a "yearly attack" on them.
The government has recently cracked down on non-strike industrial action, but Brown said the union should be working with Health NZ and negotiating in good faith, rather than striking.
"Ultimately, these are public servants who work in hospitals, and their role is to care for patients and put patients first," he said. "That is not what they're doing.
"It's an incredibly important point that these union contracts not only have the increase that is on offer, but also have annual step increases, which those staff get, based on how many years that they are in the job, and that's a point that media don't highlight."
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