Primary And Community Care Will Remain In Crisis Until Nurses Receive Pay Parity

Paying incentives to GP clinics to hire nurses won’t fix the systemic funding issues causing chronic staff shortages in primary and community health care, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced incentive payments for primary care providers such as GP clinics of $15,000 for every graduate nurse hired in cities and $20,000 for every graduate nurse hired in rural areas.

NZNO College of Primary Health Care Nurses chair Tracey Morgan says the funding gives health care providers outside hospitals a temporary reprieve from the financially crippling co-payment system.

"Paying incentives to hire nurses to aged care providers, and now primary and community providers, won’t address the underlying cause of chronic staff shortages. Once the incentives run out, these clinics will still struggle to keep the doors open and see new patients.

"They won’t stem the flow of nurses leaving GP and community clinics to work overseas or for Te Whatu Ora in our hospitals, where they are paid on average between 14% to 20.8% (between $5.14 and $7.88) per hour more."

Tracey Morgan says there is consensus that until primary nurses are paid parity with their hospital counterparts nothing will improve.

"There is also nothing in today’s announcement to boost much needed Māori nurse numbers.

"It is time for the Government to pay primary care nurses the same as their hospital counterparts and introduce a sustainable funding model for the primary care sector," Tracey Morgan says.

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