Practice nurses left off Verrall’s funding list while pay disparity still being assessed

Exactly what it is we have to prove, to exactly whom, has never been advised to us

Health minister Ayesha Verrall left out practice nurses from a pay disparities funding list on Friday but says it’s still to be decided whether those nurses will be funded for a pay increase.

The sector expressed frustration when Dr Verrall on Friday left general practice nurses off a media release listing community sector nurses eligible for funded pay rises in a “substantial step” towards pay parity with Te Whatu Ora nurses.

In that release, she says sectors receiving additional funding for nurse pay rises from 1 July are Plunket, Family Planning, school nursing services, mental health and addiction, rural hospitals and telehealth. This is funded from the second tranche of the Government’s $200 million-a-year pay disparities fund.

The 31 March release follows only weeks after a statement by the minister indicating general practice might be eligible for funding from the second tranche if Te Whatu Ora found nurse pay disparities affect them.

When New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa queried her about general practice being left out, Dr Verrall reiterated that, if Te Whatu Ora found pay disparities, she and finance minister Grant Robertson could make funding available from 1 July for primary care (general practices).

New Zealand Doctor further asked for the criteria and timeline for deciding disparities for primary care.

The minister’s office replied that Plunket had been through an assessment process and that “assessments are currently under way” for general practice/primary care nurses. Officials expected to get advice to the minister by the end of this month.

General Practice Owners Association chair Tim Malloy says it is nonsensical to still be questioning pay disparities between practice nurses and Te Whatu Ora nurses when the differences in pay rates are published data.

Dr Malloy says from the start the association has provided “all arms of government” with information showing the significant disparity. This has stretched to $20,000 – the gap between what an experienced practice nurse can earn under the existing main primary care pay deal and the base pay a peer can earn at Te Whatu Ora.

“Exactly what it is we have to prove, to exactly whom, has never been advised to us,” says Dr Malloy.

“And if they think we can somehow afford to pay for this kind of massive leap in pay for our practice nurses out of our general funding pool – why would that be the case for us but not for Te Whatu Ora?”

The Government allocated $540 million to Te Whatu Ora to fund interim pay equity increases from March that give most public hospital nurses a $12,000 or 14 per cent increase in their base salary.

In a media release, NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said it was a “real concern” that Dr Verrall had excluded general practice nurses from her 31 March release.

READ MORE:

• Frustrating new gap in nurse pay: Push for capitation increase to close – not just reduce – pay gap
• Pay ‘bump’ omits primary care, hospitals poaching practice nurses
• General practice ‘needs to be included’ in pay parity, Te Whatu Ora official says
• Pay parity funding inconsistent: Official information fails to clarify why practice nurses left out

The $200 million a year pay disparities fund was first announced in November last year by then health minister Andrew Little.

Mr Little controversially excluded general practice from the first tranche of funding, citing a lack of “any real evidence” their pay was below their Te Whatu Ora peers.

Funding from the first $40 million tranche is being distributed this month to employers of nurses in aged residential care, hospices, home and community support services, and Māori and Pacific community care providers.

Dr Verrall says in her release that the first tranche funding will result in about 8000 community nurses receiving a “well-deserved pay rise”.