Te Ao Māori News understands the Bay of Plenty District Health Board could lose up to 150 nurses because they refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Today the vaccine mandate took effect - ‘no jab – no job’ for all health workers.
The DHB is to formally release figures on exactly how many nurses will be out of a job but the claim is likely to have a major effect on Māori living in rural communities who already have limited access to health services in the region.
“We will have more information about the number of staff who have been stood down and those who have resigned this week, as final numbers are confirmed over the next couple of days," DHB spokesperson Rosemary Clements says.
As at November 8, 95 per cent of district health board staff were known to have had at least one vaccination. As at 9 am on November 15, DHBs assessed approximately 2-3 per cent of their total workforce had still not had one vaccination. Discussions continue with those staff known not to be vaccinated and opportunities to be vaccinated are available today.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation president Kerri Nuku says she anticipates the nurses would have been in conversations with their employer and need to stand down or resign.
Reduces resources
This is likely to have a major effect on Māori, especially those living in rural communities who already have limited access to health services in the region and puts pressure on the health workers who are vaccinated.
“It will lessen the resources available to them to be able to do community visits.”
Some members of the nurses' group are pushing for more options instead of the Pfizer vaccinem by taking Moderna or Astrazeneca shots - if Medsafe approves them.
"We would ask the employer to have a little bit of leniency and stand them down until there's a reconsideration of that. But at the end of the day it is an individual's choice."
The push encouraging nurses to vaccinate is the continued pay parity issue. Nuku wants to see proactive planning by the government for nurses who have been at the frontline of this pandemic.
“I think it’s worsened,” she says. “We have governments that fail to listen and proactively plan for nursing.”
“That might be a straw that could be a deciding factor. Some would say 'no, because we're not getting recognised like our peers' at the district health boards.”