A new report from the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi laying bare the coalition government's deliberate strategy to delay hiring health workers to save money, leaving patients and workers to pay the price.
Read the report now.
This report is the collective voice of 1,800 health workers.
Workers at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora have spent more than two years facing a deliberate understaffing crisis. Collectively their voices paint a vivid picture of the reality of our health system that is stronger than the Minister’s attempt to obfuscate the impact of underfunding. This report celebrates both the work health workers do every day and the strength and importance of their voices.
'We are required to quietly cut and restrict services in order to prevent waiting lists from blowing out. For speech language therapy services we are required to focus on patients with dysphagia (swallowing disorders) instead of patients with communication disorders. This is having a devastating effect on vulnerable populations without access to alternative or private care.’
– Speech language therapy
‘I work in the CRISIS team, so we need to have a full team at all times, this is not the case. Significant possible suicide risk to our patients.’
- Crisis mental health
‘We provide a wrap around whanau ora concept working along with clinician and other services. Ensuring Māori patients and others if they call on our service have holistic approach and choice while in our hospitals. Vacancies are causing a gap in patient visits by our team becoming a large gap and at times patients are not seen.’
– Māori health
Grace Millar is the report’s lead author. Sam Huggard, Andrew McCauley, Shannon Walsh, and Kirsten Windelov provided editorial support. Dan Phillips designed the report. The artwork is by Stevie Hallet.
