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Catie Plowman-Hughes has only been a general practice nurse in Christchurch for 18 months, but she joined a picket line for the first time on Thursday.
The 28-year-old was one of roughly 3,500 primary care nurses who joined a nationwide strike and protests yesterday after negotiations over a claim for payment stalled, despite 12 months of negotiations.
Primary health care members of the New Zealand Nurses Organization (NZNO) held rallies across the country.
Plowman-Hughes said the group wanted pay parity with the District Health Board (DHB) nurses.
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She felt they had been “left behind”.
“When the DHB nurses went on strike I went out to support them … and this time I went out on my own.
“We have been trying to get the same salary for a year and we keep getting the same answer: ‘no.’
CHRIS SKELTON / Things
Christchurch GP nurse Catie Plowman-Hughes, right with the poster, has been a practice nurse for 18 months and joined the picket line Thursday.
Employers support the claim, but need $ 15 million in government funding to accept it.
“People see us as physician assistants, but we are much more than that,” Plowman-Hughes.
He said GP nurses had taken on a much broader range of responsibilities over the past decade as health systems focused on keeping people out of the hospital.
The nurses provided injections, swabs, minor surgeries, biopsies, infusions, and some even performed their own practices.
Many practice nurses had made great sacrifices to protect the community during the Covid-19 shutdowns, including not seeing close family members, Plowman-Hughes said.
“I couldn’t see my family, my friends. I was going out and testing Covid every day and I didn’t know if I was going to get Covid or where it was. “
He wanted Health Minister Chris Hipkins to show that the government valued his contribution by supporting the equal pay claim.
In Christchurch, about 200 nurses and health care staff in masks on Bealey Ave held signs that read “Applause doesn’t pay the bills” and “Please support us so we can continue to support you.”
Chris Skelton / Stuff
General practice nurses go on strike in Christchurch on Thursday.
One practical nurse, who declined to be named, said they deserved pay parity with DHB nurses, who were paid 10.6% more.
“Minister Hipkins, you are new to the job, this is an opportunity to recognize our worth.”
KEVIN STENT / Stuff
Johnsonville Medical Center Nurse Alysha Jackson, 5-month-old daughter Eden, says practice nurses are undervalued.
About 100 practices from around Wellington, Hutt Valley, Kapiti, Porirua and Wairarapa were affected by the strike.
Sarah Collier, a rural practice nurse from Taihape, said she and her colleagues were underrated.
“Someone has told me ‘you sit around all day waiting to get your shots.’
She said that without nearby hospitals, rural nurses were often the first point of contact for emergency medical events, such as accidents.
With a high turnover of GPs in rural areas, nurses often had to run clinics.
More recently, they had also had to run community testing centers for Covid-19 testing.
Alysha Jackson, a Johnsonville practice nurse, said she felt practice nurses were undervalued.
CHRIS SKELTON / Things
Members of primary health care demonstrated on Bealey Ave in Christchurch in support of their one-day strike.
“It makes me question what I should consider a career change. As much as I love nursing, I still have bills to pay.”
NZNO organizer Chris Wilson said there were no signs the government would help close the $ 15 million funding gap to allow GPs to pay nurses the salary increase in mediation between the parties on Tuesday.
“Our members are so angry and disappointed to have to lose payment today to show the seriousness of this problem.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Chris Hipkins said that negotiations between the private sector parties are not the government’s business.
But Wilson said primary care nurses did not accept this.
KEVIN STENT / Stuff
Upper Hutt Health Center nurse Hayley O’Neill at a rally in Wellington.
She said in May this year that the government provided $ 151 million in funding to private employers in the early childhood sector to address hiring and retention issues.
General practitioner services would be significantly reduced as a result of the strike and some smaller practices had closed for the day, he said.
Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Medical Director Brian Betty said around 500 practices had been affected by the national strike.
He was unaware that any office had to close due to the action, but said patients could experience longer wait times when trying to make contact or be seen.
Routine appointments may have to be postponed. Many GPs were taking over to fill the void left by nurses on Thursday.
He said that the practice nurses were an integral part of the healthcare system and just as important as their colleagues at the hospital.
The university did not participate in the salary negotiations.
KEVIN STENT / Stuff
Julia Chrystall, left, and Sarah Collier, both Taihape Health Ltd nurses
Betty said it was not sustainable for the wage disparity, created by the recent agreement of the hospital nurses, to continue.
Senior hospital doctors and dentists supported the nurses’ strike, saying all healthcare workers deserved an investment.
The Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Sarah Dalton, said it was “unfair” that such a wage disparity existed between workers with the same qualifications and experience.
“These nurses are on the coal face of our communities and the Covid pandemic has served to highlight the essential service they provide,” he said.
Breakfast
They ask for pay parity with their colleagues on the district health board.
Nurses and health workers in Auckland also went on strike and held a demonstration in New Lynn, at the corner of the intersection of ANZ and Main Rd, from 12 noon to 1pm.
The strike was first announced in August and will affect more than 500 GPs and accident or medical centers across the country.
Covid-19 testing will not be directly affected by testing that will still be available on sites run by DHB, an NZNO spokesperson said.
Currently, nurses with experience in general practitioners and accident and medical centers earn about $ 7,500 a year less than those in DHBs.
Mediation between GP owners, represented by the New Zealand Medical Association and Green Cross Health, and the NZNO, the union that represents workers, failed to find common ground on Tuesday.
