It is one of those curious cases in which we have to try to calculate just where the truth lies. On the one hand, we have a strong union with a long track record of supporting its members; on the other, we have New Zealand’s largest publicly funded agency and biggest employer with the heft of a formidable communications team behind it.
Size is, of course, no guarantee of being right. Neither is being the most vocal or the first to speak out.
When the New Zealand Nurses Organisation first blew the whistle last Wednesday on alleged mismanagement of the placement of graduate nurses by Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, it seemed one of those occasions in which sanity and common sense had been completely bypassed by bureaucratic bungling.
How could there be no guarantees of hospital jobs for these 535 new nurses when the system is clearly under huge strain and we are in the midst of a nursing crisis? It simply beggared belief, when so many nurses from overseas are needed to fill the gaps.
Health NZ’s response appeared slow and lacklustre, as if it had been caught flatfooted, though that in itself does not mean it was necessarily in the wrong.
It denied any funding or recruitment freeze of graduate nurses when it came to hospital positions.
Health Minister Shane Reti said he had been assured by the agency there was no such "pause" and warned there was "misinformation" circulating about the issue, which would be causing "unwarranted anxiety and concern for our hard-working nursing students".
Health NZ’s chief nurse, Nadine Gray, also said there was no freeze. But her comment that "we are continuing to employ graduate nurses, focusing on the areas where we have vacancies", did hint at the organisation leaving itself a potential escape route through quietly suggesting "where we have vacancies".
That was soon made more overt in a Te Whatu Ora statement that there were "more expressions of interest than we are likely to have vacancies".
In other words, even in the middle of a nursing crisis, there isn’t enough money budgeted to turn things around.
When Health NZ chief executive Fepulea’i Margie Apa eventually warmed to the cause, she did so after a bizarre sidestep and evasion of TVNZ political reporter Benedict Collins and his questions on graduate nurses.
On the face of it, because NZNO struck first with its media release, Health NZ has been left looking a bit shifty and ill-prepared.
Chief executives can’t be experts on every issue in their organisations, especially one as large as Te Whatu Ora.
However, something which goes to the very core of their being, and is linked to one of the biggest problems in our health sector, should have been at the forefront of Ms Apa’s mind.
These keen graduate nurses have to be employed here. Otherwise, like many others disillusioned with funding and cuts, we will soon lose them as they make their way across the Tasman.
It’s simply nuts
National grid company Transpower must be hugely embarrassed at what caused the collapse of one of its pylons in Northland last week, cutting power to tens of thousands of people.
In a statement, chief executive Alison Andrew said it appeared too many nuts were removed by Omexom contractors from bolts holding the tower to the base plate.
It was "unprecedented and inconceivable".
If it weren’t so dangerous, the farcical situation would have been funnier.
It brings to mind the Only Fools and Horses scene in which Del Boy, Rodney and Grandad ineptly attempt to dislodge a chandelier for cleaning.
Quite right that an investigation into processes is under way. This was not a set of Meccano after all, but a structure holding 220,000-volt electricity lines.
