Simeon Brown is refusing to answer basic questions about graduate nurses' futures while thousands of them struggle to find work.
In a questionnaire from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation nursing publication Kaitiaki, Brown refused to answer questions about National’s plans for the nursing workforce, claiming they have politicised health.
“A Minister of Health should be able to give a straight answer to a straight question. This is a Health Minister who has spent two years denying there’s a hiring freeze, while nurses have been warning about crippling staff shortages and been blocked from filling vacant positions,” Labour health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall said.
“Now, when asked a straightforward question about how National will support New Zealand trained graduate nurses into work, Simeon Brown won’t even give an answer.
“He’s happy for our graduate nurses to be left without jobs and looking overseas for work, instead of offering them work in our health system.
“Under his watch, staff at four hospitals have declared states of emergency; Tauranga, North Shore, Middlemore and Waitākere hospitals.
“Doctors at Nelson, Wairau, Christchurch, Gisborne and Whakatane have all spoken out about understaffing and how our health system can’t cope – some even warning it could lead to deaths.
“It’s so bad, cancer treatments for children at Starship hospital have been delayed.
“Simeon Brown has been at the centre of all these problems. The Minister was forced to admit he’d only hired 54 nurses in two years and now won’t answer simple questions about how he plans to fix the problem.
“Labour will end the hiring freeze and guarantee every eligible graduate nurse a job, so New Zealanders get the care they deserve. That’s around 2,400 nurses every year, starting their careers here at home.
“We will also double the recruitment subsidy for nurses in primary care, so people can get care closer to home and stay out of hospital.
“New Zealanders can’t afford another three years of National’s cuts and evasion,” Dr Ayesha Verrall said.
