Critical Condition

24/10/2025

WELLBEING AT RISK

In one of New Zealand’s largest-ever strikes, an estimated 100,000 public sector workers walked off the job on Thursday, calling on the government to better fund and resource public services. The “mega strike” brought together workers from multiple sectors, including school teachers, nurses, salaried medical specialists, and public service staff.

While each union has demands specific to its sector, the complaints were broadly consistent: inadequate pay, unsafe staffing levels, lack of resources, and poor working conditions that put the wellbeing of workers, patients, and children at risk.

Teachers, nurses and public service staff among those walking off job and pressing for more government investment in health and education

19/10/2025

RETIRING PLANS

New Zealand is unprepared for a demographic shift that will see the over-65 population almost double within 25 years. According to Helen Clark Foundation researcher Kali Mercier, the country faces a shortage of 12,000 aged-care beds by 2032. When asked if New Zealand is ready for an ageing population, her answer is blunt: “No, we’re not.”

"We're not really planning for that in terms of our infrastructure provision at all," a researcher says when asked if New Zealand is ready for an ageing population.

19/10/2025

MOTIVATED BY NEED

The Government has gone on the offensive ahead of a planned mega-strike expected to involve around 100,000 workers this Thursday. Public Service Minister Judith Collins issued a media release decrying "unfair and unwarranted" action and saying the strikes appeared to be "politically motivated by the unions".

The multi-sector strike will see teachers, nurses, and other public sector workers walk off the job, demanding better pay, safer staffing levels, and improved working conditions.

An estimated 100,000 workers are expected to walk off the job on Thursday, demanding better pay, safer staffing levels, and improved working conditions.

17/10/2025

NOT PATIENTS, REVENUE

The traditional family doctor is increasingly being replaced by corporate employees and video screens. Former head of the senior doctors’ union, Ian Powell, warns that the drive to boost profits for shareholders could create “perverse incentives”. Companies respond to questions about their model of care with what they know best: numbers.

Patients are worried about rise of corporate-owned GP clinics, but they say judge us 'on the outcomes'.

16/10/2025

AT BREAKING POINT

Senior doctors have rejected Health Minister Simeon Brown’s claim that they’ve crossed an “ethical line” by striking. They say they’re instead facing impossible decisions while trying to care for patients in an overstretched health system.

According to ASMS national president Katie Ben, after years of underinvestment the country’s health system is now at breaking point, with staff shortages and strained services widespread.

Simeon Brown has called on senior doctors to “call off the strike”.

15/10/2025

ASSAULT ON HEALTH

Mental health workers at a secure Auckland unit have filed an official complaint after a staff member suffered a head injury while trying to restrain a patient. Fleur Fitzsimons, the Public Service Association’s (PSA) national secretary, said violent assaults happen regularly. “The staffing levels are not safe, and the issues raised here are part of the reason these workers are taking strike action on 23 October.”

A mental health worker suffered a head injury while trying to restrain an elderly patient.

13/10/2025

CUTTING DIGNITY

A new report from the Nurses Organisation on aged care has found that some residents are going up to two weeks without a shower, while staff are being forced to ration incontinence pads and wound dressings. The report says the sector is in crisis, largely due to staffing shortages. Yet the government keeps insinuating that health professionals are the ones to blame.

Residents were sometimes going two weeks without a shower and staff were forced to ration incontinence pads, a report found.

13/10/2025

LEFT IN PAIN

A new report in the New Zealand Medical Journal warns that rheumatology patients with inflamed joints are being left to suffer at home. It found nursing levels were below acceptable standards at all 16 rheumatology services across the country, with two regions having no nurses at all.

A survey has found two of 16 public hospital rheumatology services don't have any nurses employed.

10/10/2025

STUCK IN THE WARDS

A paper published in The New Zealand Medical Journal exposes the lack of specialist eating disorder units, meaning medical wards are being “pressured” to take on complex psychiatric patients without the right training or resources. Many end up stuck in wards for weeks — taking up beds desperately needed by others and still not getting the care they need.

People with eating disorders stuck in medical wards for weeks are not getting the treatment they need - and are taking up beds desperately needed by other patients.

09/10/2025

Climate change is here. Extreme weather, new disease risks, malnutrition and mental distress are taking a toll. Meanwhile, government policy isn’t keeping up, leaving public health dangerously exposed.



Read the full report here ⤵