Auckland Theatre Nurses Begin One-Month On-Call Strike

More than 370 Te Toka Tumai Auckland Te Whatu Ora theatre nurses have begun a month-long on-call strike over short-staffing which has forced them to do involuntary overtime.

It involves members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Hospital. Perioperative nurses are those working in preoperative, theatre and postoperative care.

NZNO delegate and Starship perioperative nurse Haim Ainsworth says the month-long on-call strike follows rolling two-hour strikes by Auckland theatre nurses on 1 May.

"There are chronic and ongoing staff shortages in Auckland’s hospitals which are forcing us to work longer than we should.

"We stay late when we are needed because we care about our patients. Te Whatu Ora needs to ensure our shifts are adequately staffed and we are paid properly for any overtime we have to do."

Haim Ainsworth says Te Whatu Ora needs to stop taking advantage of the goodwill of perioperative nurses.

"We won’t walk out on our patients. But short staffing which leads to nurses having to frequently do overtime is a risk to patient safety. It prevents nurses having enough time to care properly for their patients and leads to burnout. It not sustainable and its time it stopped," he says.

Notes:

- The strike began Monday 26 May at 7am and will run until Monday 23 June.

- The "on-call strike" involves perioperative nurses refusing to participate in the on-call roster which results in them having to do overtime they are not properly compensated for.

- NZNO has worked with Te Whatu Ora to ensure Life Preserving Services are in place for the duration of the strike.

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