About 100 nurses are rallying outside Christchurch Hospital this afternoon, protesting against a lack of investment in health care.
About 100 nurses in Christchurch are protesting about pay and a lack of investment in health care. Photo: RNZ / Logan Church
A proposed pay deal was rejected last month by 27,000 nurses and midwives employed by district health boards.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation is now organising rallies all over the country.
Today, about 100 nurses lined the edge of Hagley Park opposite the Christchurch hospital, protesting about pay and a lack of investment in health care.
A mental health nurse, Kathryn Brankin, who has been a nurse for more than 40 years, said nurses had been undervalued for much of that time.
Under-funding of the public health system was impacting on how well nurses could do their job, and in some cases resulting in nurses working in unsafe environments, she said.
Nurses lining the edge of Hagley Park opposite Christchurch Hospital Photo: RNZ / Logan Church
A Christchurch hospital nurse, Cheryl Hanam, said nurses needed to be paid fairly and the health system needed proper investment.
"It's about safe staffing, it's about numbers, it's about making sure that we have good staff to patient ratios, it's about being able to cover sickness and injuries. We know that nursing wellness and nursing numbers make a big difference to patients in our health care system."
Meanwhile, nurses also rallied outside Whangārei Hospital today, with community mental health nurse, Jacqui Metcalfe, saying nurses in Northland were under-resourced and there were too few of them.
She said the poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and population growth in the region were creating a higher and complex need, and more demand for help.
Staff were becoming burnt out, and the situation was bad both for clients' wellbeing and staff morale, Ms Metcalfe said.
Canterbury District Health Board declined to comment.