The Nurses Organisation says it is shocked by the letter written by clinicians at Middlemore Hospital about delays to cancer treatment.
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But it said nurses have similar concerns to those expressed by 13 department heads, who described a crisis in staffing.
The issues reported were a symptom of under-investment and were the same in many other hospitals, said the Nurses Organisation's chief executive Memo Musa.
"Across the health sector, nurses are telling us they have inadequate staffing levels to respond to increased needs and an ageing population and the complexity of need they are having to respond to," he said.
Nurses had been rallying to bring attention to staffing levels, he added.
The Acting Health Minister, Jenny Salesa said the $549 million for DHBs in this year's funding, including an extra $66.2m for Counties Manukau, is not enough to make up for nine years of under-funding.