Thursday 3 September is the second strike announced by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation to press for pay parity with their DHB employed colleagues. As part of the General Practice team we are in full support of this. Pay parity is essential to enable us to maintain equity and a fair chance of recruiting nurses to maintain service to the community.

As a Very Low Cost Access practice we have no control over the fees we can charge. All our charges are stipulated by our contract with the Department of Health so we are reliant on them to increase payment to achieve pay parity for nurses.

The initial strike was for 2 hours which we managed to accommodate but on Thursday is for 8 hours from 8am to 4pm. With our Nursing and Reception team unavailable for that time we are not able to safely open so the Tarawera Medical Centre will be closed on Thursday 3 September.

The appointments lost on this day have been moved to Tuesday and Friday. On Thursday urgent problems will have to be dealt with via ED. Healthline is also available for advice on 0800 611 116. The COVID swabbing clinic is also open on Thursday from 10am to 2pm.

From Friday 4 September we will be opening the surgery again but require everyone entering the practice to wear a mask. If you do not have one we can supply masks for $1 each. People with respiratory symptoms will need to use their vehicle as their personal waiting room until being seen in the cabin behind the surgery.