He pūrongo tēnei nā Irena Smith o Taioro News.
Gisborne ED nurses to strike over unsafe staffing levels.
Nurses at Gisborne Hospital’s emergency department say chronic understaffing is leaving staff exhausted and patients at risk, with a one-hour health and safety strike planned for Wednesday.
For senior nurse Sarah Kapene, leaving Gisborne Hospital’s emergency department after 15 years was not a decision she wanted to make.
Nurses’ strike over severe staffing shortages
The workload, lack of sleep and pressure of working in an understaffed department had taken their toll.
“I feel really undervalued when I get told to work faster. I’m like, I’m going as fast as I can, mate,” she told Taioro.
Kapene became emotional describing the impact the job had taken on her life.
“It just got too much, the workload, the lack of sleep, my husband begging me to leave because he just sees me so broken and tired.”
Her experience sits behind a decision by New Zealand Nurses Organisation members in Gisborne Hospital’s emergency department to stop work for one hour.
The health and safety strike will run on the 9th of September from 2.30 pm until 3.30 pm and centres on staffing levels rather than a demand for more pay.
Registered nurse and NZNO delegate Clara Dolman-Tuhou says the department has lost 10 nurses over the past year, including experienced senior staff.
“We’re so understaffed. We feel very unsafe in our jobs, in our roles at the ED at the moment,” she said.
Understaffed and overworked
Dolman-Tuhou says she worked 94 hours in one fortnight, about 30 hours above her contracted hours.
Her account is consistent with figures she provided publicly ahead of the strike. She says simply refusing overtime is difficult when nurses can see their colleagues struggling and sick patients waiting for care.
“You can look out into the waiting room and you can’t just leave, and that is why we are nurses in the first place.”
The Gisborne nurses say comparable emergency departments have about 45 full-time equivalent nurses, while Gisborne has 20.1 FTE.
“We just want help. We just want support. We want to be able to look after our patients and give them the care they deserve,” Dolman-Tuhou said.
This strike is about health and safety, the health and safety of our patients and the health of us nurses.
”Health New Zealand says there are now more than 35,000 nurses working in its hospitals nationwide and nursing FTE increased by more than 3,000 in the two years to March 2025.
It says patient safety measures sensitive to staffing levels have remained stable overall, while acknowledging pressure on emergency department waiting times. The Gisborne action comes after NZNO members held nationwide strikes on 2 and 4 September, as disputes over staffing and working conditions continue across the health sector.
Firefighters and public servants join nationwide strikes
Wednesday will also bring industrial action well beyond the hospital; almost 10,000 Public Service Association members from five government agencies are due to strike across the country from 1 pm over pay and the resourcing of public services.
The action includes workers at the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Department of Internal Affairs, National Emergency Management Agency and Ministry for Ethnic Communities.
Professional firefighters will also stop work nationwide for an hour from midday to 1 pm on Wednesday as their industrial dispute with Fire and Emergency New Zealand continues.
Gisborne firefighters are among those taking part. For Gisborne’s ED nurses, however, the message remains firmly local.
They say the one-hour strike is an attempt to force action before more nurses reach the point Kapene did and decide they can no longer stay.
