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Speaker 1: Afternoon. More than thirty six thousand nurses are going on

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Speaker 1: strike for twenty four hours from nine tomorrow morning. Hospitals

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Speaker 1: are still going to be opened, but an estimated four

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Speaker 1: three hundred planned procedures and specialist appointments will have to

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Speaker 1: be postponed. Dane Helen Stokes Lampard is the acting Chief

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Speaker 1: Clinical Officer at Health New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: Afternoon, Helen good, afternoon. Okay, if someone is sick tomorrow

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Speaker 2: or injured, should they still go to hospital?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely?

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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Speaker 3: Health New Zealand is committed to looking after our most

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Speaker 3: vulnerable patients and ensuring people are safe throughout this really

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Speaker 3: difficult time. However, people who'll require non emergency care, we

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Speaker 3: would ask them to contact their GP first or to

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Speaker 3: call Health Fline. That's eight hundred and six eleven eleven

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Speaker 3: six in the first instance, because we do need to

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Speaker 3: prioritize our emergency department for the true emergencies. If you're

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Speaker 3: frightened and you're not insured, do seek health, but just

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Speaker 3: be prepared that if it's not an emergency, care is

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Speaker 3: likely to be slower in our eds, which are already

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Speaker 3: incredibly busy at this time of year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how many nurses do you imagine you would have

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Speaker 2: like out of a full roster tomorrow during this twenty

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Speaker 2: four hours, Well.

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Speaker 3: We'll be running at a very light level of nursing,

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Speaker 3: the sort of cove you'd expect on a bank holiday

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Speaker 3: like Christmas Day. So the minimum to provide safe care,

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Speaker 3: that's what we aim to do. Life preserving services is

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Speaker 3: how we define the care that's provided. And then those

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Speaker 3: who want to go on strike otherwise are free to

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Speaker 3: do so, but that does mean everybody else pulling together

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Speaker 3: to provide the cover to ensure the safe service, and

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Speaker 3: so everything else has to be deprioritized at that time.

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Speaker 2: How far apart are you guys with the nurses paywise.

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Speaker 3: Well, obviously we're disappointed that industrial action is going ahead,

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Speaker 3: and we were very keen that the our offer to

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Speaker 3: the unions we believe is fair, and what we want

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Speaker 3: to do is encourage the unions to focus their efforts

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Speaker 3: on the bargaining so that any outstanding issues can be resolved.

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Speaker 3: We honestly don't know right now. I would like to

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Speaker 3: think that everyone is keen to see a resolution as

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Speaker 3: soon as possible.

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Speaker 2: I mean, to be fair, what you're offering actually doesn't

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Speaker 2: seem that annri So how much more are they asking?

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm not privy to the details of those. You'd

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Speaker 3: have to ask one of my colleagues. But my understanding

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Speaker 3: is that a lot of the concerns are about safe staffing,

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Speaker 3: and of course all of us are health in New

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Speaker 3: Zealand are absolutely committed to some staff.

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Speaker 2: Are are you saying it's not so much about pay,

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Speaker 2: it's about staffing levels.

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Speaker 3: Starting levels are one of the issues they're talking about,

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Speaker 3: and for us, safe staffing is all about the mix

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Speaker 3: of skills that we have, the way we provide care,

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Speaker 3: strong clinical judgment and sort of thoughtful decision making from

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Speaker 3: everybody on the frontline.

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Speaker 2: So can I just get your taking on something. So

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Speaker 2: one of the complaints from the nurses organization has been

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Speaker 2: there recently in christ you there was such a shortage

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Speaker 2: of healthcare workers that family and friends were asked to

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Speaker 2: come in and look after people who were in hospital.

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Speaker 2: Is that acceptable?

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Speaker 3: It shouldn't have to happen that this is the case,

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Speaker 3: but there have been situations that are undesirable. What we

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Speaker 3: want is for people to be working within their right scope.

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Speaker 3: So that's healthcare professionals doing what healthcare professionals do. Clearly,

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Speaker 3: if family and friends want to help out, well that's different.

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Speaker 3: But it shouldn't be that in Health New Zealand that

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Speaker 3: we need to help a family and friends to run

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Speaker 3: a service.

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Speaker 2: Helen, thank you so much, Dame Helen Stokes Lampard, Acting

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Speaker 2: Health New Zealand Chief Clinical Officer. For more from Hither

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Speaker 2: Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be

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