Cancellation Of Health Charter A Giant Step Backwards For Health And Community Support Workers
Minister Simeon Brown's suite of changes to the Pae Ora Act will see, among other things, a repeal of the Te Mauri o Rongo Health Charter.
"The Health Charter set out shared values and principles to shape behaviours for how Te Whatu Ora will support and promote a safe working culture across health, including the funded community sector. Now it's gone, with seemingly nothing to replace it," Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi national secretary, Fleur Fitzsimons, says.
"Hospital, health, and community support workers are already under immense strain. They're constantly asked to do more with less. And the high frequency of assaults by patients - particularly for mental health workers - is increasingly, frighteningly normalised."
The PSA played a critical role in developing the charter, standing up a working group of health and community support workers shortly after Te Whatu Ora was established. It was developed by the health workforce for the health sector, and is a positive framework to lead and support the health system to develop relationships to achieve pae ora (healthy futures).
"A functioning health system must commit to supporting their workforce and empowering them to speak out when their safety is compromised. Otherwise we'll just do what New Zealand has done for years, and drive out our highly trained health workforce to sunnier pastures overseas.
"The commitment to a well-trained workforce with access to appropriate resources to develop their skills, as well as workers to provide person and whānau-centred services, are a challenge to this Government.
"The coalition continues to show us who and what they value. It's very clear that they're continuing to completely under-value the workers, and especially the women workers, who prop up the system to serve New Zealand whānau when they need it most."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
9 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Health NZ accused of dropping 'safe staffing' from nurses' pay offer
The biggest nurses' union is accusing Health NZ of putting money ahead of safety by dropping a safe staffing agreement from its latest contract offer. Negotiations, which began last October, have stalled over what the Nurses Organisation called "big ticket items" centred on public safety, leading to a nationwide strike in December. NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said that in an earlier offer, Te Whatu Ora had committed to acting on safe staffing research they had agreed to do together. "Te Whatu Ora has removed that from their latest offer without explanation. This demonstrates their focus is on cost cutting, not patient safety." A survey of members showed understaffing was putting patients at risk, he said. "Overworked staff are unable to give patients the care they need and leads to staff burnout." Figures for 631 wards using the safe staffing (Care Capacity Demand Management programme) - obtained by the union under the Official Information Act - showed ongoing nursing shortages, Goulter said. "These figures show from January to October last year almost half (or 47.1 percent) of all wards were understaffed 20 percent of the time. That means nurses and health care assistants are working in understaffed wards at least one shift a week. "We are also continuing to see acute levels of understaffing in emergency departments, mental health, women's health and children's wards." In an interview with RNZ's Morning Report programme on Friday, Te Whatu Ora acting chief executive Robyn Shearer said it was difficult to resolve clinical need through collective bargaining. "It's not an easy thing to put into settlement agreement, but we do have operational policies which look at safe staffing and rostering and that continues," she said. However, Goulter said safe staffing had to be central to any agreement. "It is concerning that Robyn Shearer isn't aware CCDM has been in the Te Whatu Ora/NZNO collective agreement since 2010," he said. RNZ asked Te Whatu Ora for its response to the union's claim it was putting cost-cutting ahead of patient safety by removing the commitment to safe staffing, and whether the Care Capacity Demand Management programme was on hold. However, a spokesperson said the agency had nothing further to add to its earlier statement and Robyn Shearer's interview.
Scoop
10 hours ago
- Scoop
Pandemic Perspectives Focus Of COVID-19 Inquiry Public Hearing Next Week
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned will next week hear a range of perspectives on the pandemic as the Inquiry's first public hearing begins. The Inquiry's 'Pandemic Perspectives' public hearing will take place between Monday 7 July and Friday 11 July. This hearing will allow Commissioners to hear from groups, organisations, and individuals from around Aotearoa New Zealand about their experiences of the pandemic and the Government's response to COVID-19. 'The Pandemic Perspectives public hearing will allow us, in the open, to hear a range of experiences as well as suggestions for future pandemic responses. It is important we listen to these voices and ask key questions, so we can develop robust findings and recommendations,' says Grant Illingworth KC, Chair of the Inquiry. Individuals, organisations and experts will talk about the effects of key public health decisions, including social division and isolation, health and education, and business activity. Commissioners are focusing the hearing on three key areas of the Inquiry's terms of reference and that have been key themes raised in public submissions already received by the Inquiry: · Lockdowns in 2021, in particular the extended lockdown in Auckland and Northland from September 2021. · Vaccine approvals and safety. · Introduction and use of vaccine mandates throughout 2021 and 2022. The hearing schedule and list of witnesses is available on the Inquiry's website: A second and final public hearing will take place from 20 August to 27 August in Pōneke Wellington, where Commissioners will hear from key decision makers who led the Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and from senior public servants. 'As Commissioners, our job is to identify lessons from the country's COVID-19 response to ensure that as a nation, we can be better prepared for future pandemics,' says Mr Illingworth. 'Our goal is to provide recommendations – that can be understood by all New Zealanders – to help build a strong response for the future. 'We need a well-organised, resilient, robust defence, and we need to be able to come together as a country to face future pandemics.' Alongside the public hearings, the Inquiry has also held interviews with key decision makers, met with individuals and organisations who experienced the pandemic and the response to it, gathered 31,000 public submissions, and sought extensive written evidence from Government departments and other organisations. 'We are encouraged by and thank the 31,000 of you who shared your experiences through our recent public submissions process. I also thank the huge number of people and organisations we've met in engagements up and down the country. Your experiences and perspectives are vital to our work,' says Mr Illingworth. The 'Pandemic Perspectives' public hearing will be streamed on the Inquiry's website so it can be watched live by the public. Registered media will be able to attend the hearing for reporting purposes. A range of accessible resources will also be available during and after the hearings. Due to physical limitations, the Inquiry cannot accommodate members of the public.
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Health NZ accused of dropping 'safe staffing' from nurses pay offer
Photo: RNZ The biggest nurses' union is accusing Health NZ of putting money ahead of safety by dropping a safe staffing agreement from its latest contract offer. Negotiations, which began last October, have stalled over what the Nurses Organisation called "big ticket items" centred on public safety, leading to a nationwide strike in December. NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said in an earlier offer, Te Whatu Ora committed to acting on safe staffing research they had agreed to do together. "Te Whatu Ora has removed that from their latest offer without explanation. This demonstrates their focus is on cost cutting, not patient safety." A survey of members showed understaffing was putting patients at risk, he said. "Overworked staff are unable to give patients the care they need and leads to staff burnout." Figures for 631 wards using the safe staffing (Care Capacity Demand Management programme) - obtained by the union under the Official Information Act - showed ongoing nursing shortages, Goulter said. "These figures show from January to October last year almost half (or 47.1 percent) of all wards were understaffed 20 percent of the time. That means nurses and health care assistants are working in understaffed wards at least one shift a week. "We are also continuing to see acute levels of understaffing in emergency departments, mental health, women's health and children's wards." In an interview with RNZ's Morning Report programme on Friday, Te Whatu Ora acting chief executive Robyn Shearer said it was difficult to resolve clinical need through collective bargaining. "It's not an easy thing to put into settlement agreement, but we do have operational policies which look at safe staffing and rostering and that continues," she said. However, Goulter said safe staffing had to be central to any agreement. "It is concerning that Robyn Shearer isn't aware CCDM has been in the Te Whatu Ora/NZNO collective agreement since 2010," he said. RNZ asked Te Whatu Ora for its response to the union's claim it was putting cost-cutting ahead of patient safety by removing the commitment to safe staffing, and whether the Care Capacity Demand Management programme was on hold. However, a spokesperson said the agency had nothing further to add to its earlier statement and Robyn Shearer's interview.
