'We are in a health care crisis' - Plunket nurses face chronic understaffing

Overworked Plunket nurses are facing an unprecedented workload amid the surge in winter illnesses and say the health care system is in crisis.They want Winston Peters to make good on the coalition agreement between New Zealand First and National to adequately fund Whānau Āwhina Plunket.But the Government says funding has increased over the past couple of years.Flu season has hit hard - day cares are closing, schools are combining classes and, with reports of young children getting rushed to intensive care, flu-related hospitalisations have reached a 10-year peak in Auckland.Nationwide, infections rates are at a four-year high and that bleak picture is also taking its toll on Plunket nurses.Plunket immunisation service manager Bernadette Heaphy said their workload had skyrocketed this winter."Mostly we've been seeing winter illnesses, so those respiratory illnesses… coughs, colds, children who are struggling to feed because they've got snotty noses."And just generally parents worried about things like fever."Plunket's 498 nurses are now responding to an extra 200 calls each day across Aotearoa, to help with overflow from St John.The nurses are also doing their usual job of health and developmental checks for children up to five years old.Plunket is set to receive $87 million in government funding over the next financial year.But New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) national delegate and Plunket nurse Hannah Cook said the nurses were still bearing the brunt of years of under-staffing."In different parts of the country there are certainty staff that are going on stress leave, we are seeing staff that are going all day without being able to take a toilet break."They're making sure that the whanau don't miss out, but that's not something that's sustainable, appropriate funding would help to fix that so we can get more kaimahi onboard."Plunket nurses' pay equity claim was among the 33 cancelled by the government last year when it was just weeks away from being raised.Cook said Plunket nurses continued to feel undervalued."The role that we do as primary health care is keeping people out of GPs, out of hospitals, reducing that pressure on our secondary and tertiary health services."We've had years of decreasing support from the government; we are being paid considerably less than those that work in hospitals and we do have staff that leave to other services."NZNO College of Primary Health Care Nurses chair Tracey Morgan said because of the demand, Plunket nurses often had to take their work home with them, cutting into their own time.Morgan told Checkpoint some nurses were having to work up to 12 hour days."They're already burnt out... it's because of the pressure and so they're leaving because it's just too much."She said some qualified nurses that had been with Plunket for more than 20 years had retired early because of the pressure."From what we used to be able to handle five to 10 years ago has doubled or tripled now."Morgan said it was also an issue across general practice, hospice and Māori health."We are in a health care crisis, we've got chronic staff shortages, so it's no wonder [the nurses] are leaving."We are skilled, experienced nurses. We know what we're doing, but we're so undervalued, under paid, historically and systemically."Māori and iwi providers are even less again."The NZNO has written to Peters, seeking action on the coalition's promise on adequately funding Plunket.Associate Health Minister Casey Costello told Checkpoint that in line with the coalition agreement, annual funding for Plunket has increased by 17.5 percent since 2024.As well as receiving $87 million this financial year for its contracted Well Child Tamariki Ora services, Plunket also received funding for regionally contracted services.