Planning In Place For NZNO Strike

Nurses, midwives, and healthcare assistants who are members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) will undertake national strike action next week.

The strike action will be involve a complete withdrawal of labour from all DHBs around the country from 11am to 7pm, on Wednesday 9 June.

Patient safety and wellbeing remains the highest priority and focus during this time, and contingency planning is well underway at both Hutt Valley and Capital & Coast DHBs.

Like all DHBs, HVDHB and CCDHB will experience staffing gaps and will need to prioritise essential and acute services over others. This means that some planned services and outpatient appointments may need to be rescheduled. Affected patients will be notified accordingly.

The Emergency Departments (EDs) at both Wellington Regional Hospital and Hutt Hospital will remain open during the strike, however people are asked to call their GP or Healthline (0800 611 116) for advice in the first instance.

Anyone presenting to the Wellington ED will be assessed by a senior doctor on arrival – or a doctor or nurse at the Hutt ED – and be prioritised for treatment based on their assessed level of clinical need.

Someone assessed as not having an urgent need may be redirected to their GP or medical centre, an after-hours clinic, or asked to return the following day. If this does not happen, patients with non-urgent needs will wait significantly longer to see a as ED will prioritise patients with urgent needs.

Information for patients is available on both the Hutt Valley DHB and Capital & Coast DHB websites.

For our latest news, visit www.ccdhb.org.nz and www.huttvalleydhb.org.nz or www.facebook.com/CCDHB and www.facebook.com/HuttValleyDHB.

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