11. Question No. 11—HealthDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 11—Health11. Dr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green) to the Minister of Health: Have any district health boards requested to have more staff on duty tomorrow to provide life-preserving services than there would usually be on a non-strike day; if so does this illustrate routine understaffing issues for nurses?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I'm advised that no district health boards have asked for more staff rostered for life-preserving services during the strike than would normally be on a roster. In fact many areas asked for just one fifth of normal numbers. Just to be clear nursing staff numbers on duty at hospitals during industrial action are the product of agreement between the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and DHBs. I will note however that during the strike there may be more people on a ward than usual for the safety of patients and the delivery of non-life-preserving service care. This is because the number of staff delivering life-preserving services does not meet the care needs of all patients so district health boards will have volunteers carers and family involved. So in response to the first part of the member's question no; and in response to the second part of the member's question no.Dr Elizabeth Kerekere: Is the Minister concerned that district health boards are regularly not meeting safe nursing staff levels?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I am concerned at the reports I am receiving from hospitals particularly from nurses about the pressure that they are under. I am concerned that—notwithstanding the agreement reached with the Nurses Organisation in 2018 for the Care Capacity Demand Management scheme with an expectation that that scheme would be fully up and running across all DHBs by 30 June this year—only half of DHBs say that they will meet that deadline. Seven more are saying that it could be the end of the year before they meet it and three are saying it could be sometime next year. Nurses are entitled to be disappointed about that level of achievement.Dr Elizabeth Kerekere: Is the Minister concerned by the reported levels of exhaustion and stress of nurses playing a critical role in protecting New Zealanders from COVID-19?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Yes I am. I know that even though we have added additional nurse positions right throughout the hospital network over the last three years it is true that some district health boards are struggling to fill those roles on a permanent basis and are reliant on nursing agencies to fill roles on a lot of shifts. Oftentimes staff coming from those nursing agencies are either not sufficient to meet the gaps on any particular shift or do not turn up and so other nursing staff are having to cover those gaps. That tells you just what a parlous state our hospital system was in when we became Government and we will be working with the Nurses Organisation and others to make sure we fill those gaps.Dr Elizabeth Kerekere: Does the Minister acknowledge that the decision to strike tomorrow during a global pandemic cannot be one that nurses take lightly and indicates serious issues with staffing levels and pay rates for our essential workers?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I've yet to meet a worker who goes on strike who does so willingly and because they think it's a fun thing to do. Workers take strike action because the situation they find themselves in is serious and I hear that from our nurses across the country. And that is why we must all work together with all the parties involved—the DHBs the Ministry of Health and the Nurses Organisation itself—to make sure we do the best for our nurses now and in the future.Dr Elizabeth Kerekere: And what actions will the Minister take to address the rate of nurses either leaving the profession or the country because of stress and exhaustion?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The Government through the Ministry of Health have established specific initiatives to deal with just those issues and to ensure that DHBs and their management are equipped to deal with the sort of issues that the member refers to. In the end a challenge for us is to create a health system with a quality of management that makes the working environment one that nurses feel safe to work in and delivers the best quality care to patients in New Zealand.