Royston Hospital in Hastings is one of three private hospitals affected by a nurses' strike Photo: Google Maps
Nurses at three private hospitals in Wellington and Hawke's Bay are on strike until tomorrow morning over pay and conditions.
The strike will last 24 hours, from 7am on Thursday to 7am on Friday, at Wakefield and Bowen Hospitals in Wellington and Royston Hospital in Hastings.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) union delegate Lisa Blackmore is a nurse at Wakefield Hospital in Newtown, owned by Evolution Healthcare, and she said after bargaining for the past 18 months, they had reached their limit.
"The offer that was on the table just didn't reflect what our claims were, and we just didn't feel valued," Blackmore said.
Union members were asking for pay parity with other hospitals, in line with the cost of living, and back-pay for the past 18 months at that rate.
"In that time, the cost of living has actually really exploded. So what may have been accepted by the members 18 months ago is just not near what we're all trying to live and work through now."
Nurses did not go on strike easily, she said, but they had reached an impasse.
"We've met 11 times and had two days of mediation, and we had a day of mediation yesterday that actually failed, and we just have not been listened to."
She said they were willing to cancel the strike if the mediation had gone well, but their employer had ensured the strike went ahead by "showing up to mediation and just ... it was like a tick box exercise", she said.
Evolution Healthcare acting chief executive Matthew Clarke said in a statement Evolution had offered a median pay rise of 15 percent and a guarantee it would be revisited should public hospitals raise wages during the term of the agreement.
He said they had done "everything we could to prevent a strike", but about 80 procedures had been rescheduled.
More than two-thirds of elective surgeries were performed in private facilities, Clarke said, with Evolution's hospitals doing more than 50,000 a year.
"With the significant wait lists for elective surgeries across the country, we are doing all we can to minimise the disruption to our patients and their booked surgeries."