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Rob Campbell: Former Health New Zealand Chair on 24 hour nurses strike · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Nine am, thirty six thousand nurses go on strike. It's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a twenty four hour strike, pay staffing levels, big sticking
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: points and negotiations. Health New Zealand reckons more than four
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and a half thousand plan procedures and specialist appointments will
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: have to be postponed.
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  Speaker 2: We'll be running at a very late level of nursing,
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  Speaker 2: the sort of cove you'd expect on a bank holiday
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  Speaker 2: like Christmas Day. So the minimum to provide safe care,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: that's what we aim to do.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Rob Campbell is the former I don't know what I
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  Speaker 1: was expecting from the accent, but no, it wasn't that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Rob Campbell's former Health acent here.
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  Speaker 2: Hey Rob, good morning Ran Now, don't don't you be
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: racist or anything about that?
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  Speaker 1: No, no, no, it's just a lovely Welsh accenter for
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  Speaker 1: a Wednesday morning. But probably the tone doesn't match the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: way that nurses are feeling. I would imagine. Can you
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: tell me, because I've asked the union and I've asked
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Health New Zealand, do we have a shortage of how
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: many nurses are we short in our hospitals right now?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I can't give you a number, but there's no question
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  Speaker 2: that there's a shortage on Health New Zealand's own safe
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: staffing levels numbers. There are any number of shifts, some
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: say up to half which are not properly staffed, so
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: there's no question there is a shortage of nurses available
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: in our public hospitals. There are nurses available to fill
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: those jobs in many cases, but Health News is shall
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: we say, quite slow to take up many of those opportunities,
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  Speaker 2: so they are running with staffing levels below those which
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: are ideal, or even ones to which they've previously agreed.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: How much of this do you think can be solved
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: by increasing the salaries the wages.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: All of the salaries are important to the people, to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: the men and women involved as nurses, But actually I
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: think the bigger issue is one of trust. There's been
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: a complete breakdown of trust between nurses and many other
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: health professionals and the leadership and political and administrative of
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: the health system. And I think that people don't simply
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: trust general assurances anymore. They want to see rules which
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: are enforceable so that their working conditions are safe and
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: capable of being met. So pay is part of it.
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  Speaker 2: But I don't think simply increasing the payoff or will
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  Speaker 2: solve the problem. This has to be solved face to
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  Speaker 2: face with the nurses and the people that they're working for.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: They strike off. I mean, it doesn't matter who's in power,
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  Speaker 1: they strike You know, what do you say to people
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  Speaker 1: who will say, well, you know, you just after more money,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not getting paid more. I mean one percent is
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: better than no percent.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Well, it looks as if you're on the board of
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  Speaker 2: Health New Zealand you might be in for a bit
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of an increase from yesterday's announcement by the government. But
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: this is not particularly about this current government. There have
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: been successive governments that have not been dealing with the
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: issue of how the health workforce is properly treated and
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: involved in their own workplace. You know, we rely on
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: these people, the men and women who are nurses. We
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: rely on them when we're at our most vulnerable, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: it's not reasonable that we take advantage of them in
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the ways that we currently do. So somehow that trust
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: has to be re established, and that's going to be
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: a process that taps quite some time, in my opinion.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: But some steps have to be made by giving assurances
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: about these safe staffing levels and meeting at least a
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: wage increase which covers the red of inflation, appears to
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: be the main trust of the nurse's Paedermont.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Rob appreciate that. This morning, Rob Campbell, former health ends
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: in Chia.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 3:28
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• 3:32
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