NZNO Wellington Convention focus on positivity under strain

Media Release 2 May 2017

NZNO Wellington Convention focus on positivity under strain

The NZNO Wellington Convention opened this morning with speeches by NZNO President Grant Brookes and Chief Executive Memo Musa.

Grant Brookes says Hutt DHB, Wairarapa DHB and Capital and Coast DHBs are under significant pressure and current funding does not cover the costs of providing services.

“Capital and Coast also provides tertiary level services for other DHBs in the central region for example neonatal services, specialist paediatric services, cardiothoracic surgery, yet receives the lowest funding per head of population of all the DHBs,” Grant Brookes said.

“Wellington nurses are increasingly concerned that they are so ‘people and time stretched’ that the quality of care is now being rationed due to government underfunding.”

Memo Musa highlights a December 2016 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers showing that CCDHB proportions of the budget spent on all staff costs, including nursing, was low compared with Auckland DHB, Waikato DHB and Canterbury.

“It therefore seems unimaginable that more cost reductions are being demanded when the issue is that of funding. There are no more efficiencies to be found,” Memo Musa said.

“Reducing more costs will result in service cuts and reduced services to the population of Wellington and other areas in the Central Regions. Patient care and quality will suffer, staff morale will decrease, job satisfaction will wane as already shown in NZNO’s Employment Survey 2017,” Memo Musa said.

The president is promoting the NZNO open letter to New Zealand voters asking them to put better public health funding first when they vote in the next government in 6 months.

ENDS.

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