MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
THURSDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2004
Health Bosses Shouln’t Expect Sympathy From Senior Doctors Over Nurses Strike
''Health bosses in district health boards should not expect sympathy from senior doctors over the forthcoming nurses’
strikes,'' said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. Mr Powell
was commenting on the strikes scheduled on 13 February in the lower North Island DHBs.
“Senior doctors know very well how important their nursing colleagues are in ensuring high quality care for patients and
also how much nurses have been devalued by district health boards and their predecessors over many years. At times it
feels as if health bosses are in competition with each other over who can devalue nurses the most.”
“Senior doctors also know how serious New Zealand’s recruitment and retention problems for nurses are. They know that we
are short of experienced nurses in operating theatres, on the wards, in the clinics and in the community and that
patients lose out as a result.”
“The sooner district health boards realise how valuable nurses are and how much they are an indispensable asset, the
sooner they will be valued with good, fair and nationally consistent employment conditions,” concluded Mr Powell.
Ian Powell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR