Struggling Hospice Nurses Shattered By Pay Equity Changes

This year’s Hospice Awareness Week comes as hospices struggle to keep their doors open because of a lack of Government funding and nurses’ chances of fair pay shattered by the removal of their pay equity claim, NZNO says.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) hospice pay equity claim was filed in late-2023 covering 27 hospices employing its members. That claim, alongside nine others for NZNO, were thrown out by the Government last week with its to pay equity law changes.

Hospice New Zealand today said Te Whatu Ora had refused to adjust their funding so hospice nurses and health care assistants could be paid the same as their hospital counterparts. Hospices could not afford to fund the widening pay gap as at least 35% of hospice nurses’ wages came from fundraising and donations because of chronic underfunding of the sector.

NZNO delegate and hospice nurse Donna Burnett says hospice nurses are demoralised and angered by last week’s announcement.

"Hospices are already facing service cutbacks, with a strong possibility of closures in small region because of the current lack of funding. It is not sustainable. On top of this, at the swipe of a pen and a blink of an eye, Government pulled pay equity out from under us."

Due to New Zealand’s aging population, the crisis for hospices will only worsen if the Government doesn’t step up and properly fund the sector, she says.

"We are meant to be raising awareness about hospices this week, but the reality is people need to be aware of what’s happening to us nurses and health care assistants because it impacts our patients.

"Without pay equity and a fully funded sector, hospices will keep losing nurses and health care assistants to better paying hospitals or overseas health systems.

"Dying New Zealanders and their whānau have enough to worry about without not being able to access hospice care because of short staffing which is a direct result of Government decisions," Donna Burnett says.

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