{"id":243717,"date":"2026-01-21T03:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243717\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:59:20","slug":"comedian-and-radio-host-leigh-hart-pays-tribute-to-nz-nurses-after-week-in-hospital-less-impressed-with-racist-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243717\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedian and radio host Leigh Hart pays tribute to NZ nurses after week in hospital, less impressed with racist patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEveryone from the highly skilled doctors down to the orderlies moving beds, cleaners and of course the nursing staff. I didn\u2019t think it was possible to have even more admiration and respect for my mother than I had already, but now I do,\u201d said Hart, adding that his mother worked as a nurse on and off for over 50 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make special mention of the nursing staff working in Ward 68, where I was. What I saw them do on a daily basis was humbling, mind-blowing, almost incomprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LeighLeigh Hart took to social media to share his thanks to the Auckland Hospital team. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Ward 68 at Auckland Hospital is an inpatient ward for general medicine, handling admissions for non-surgical medical issues.<\/p>\n

Hart continued his post, adding that he saw nurses in the ward subject to racism and abuse; \u201cThey work hard in tough conditions, often doing some pretty vile tasks for little thanks. I saw them put up with standard abuse and, of course, racism!\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 55-year-old revealed he was less than impressed by some of the patients and occasionally let them know his thoughts on their behaviour. <\/p>\n

\u201cDo I think nurses need to be paid more? YES, I do. We need to nurture this industry, keep as many qualified here as possible and be more grateful to them and all the others in our imperfect health system.\u201d<\/p>\n

He finished by noting that his post wasn\u2019t meant to be taken as a political commentary, simply a thanks to nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really are the best of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), including nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and kaimahi hauora, engaged in \u201cwork-to-rule\u201d action last year<\/a> to highlight what they call unsafe staffing levels.<\/p>\n

Followers of Hart rushed to the comments section to thank him for his words and share similar stories. <\/p>\n

\u201cHaving spent the last 14-months within the Northland health system, my experience has mirrored yours, mate – those people doing that mahi on the daily need their blood bottled, paid a lot better and shown the respect they deserve,\u201d one said. <\/p>\n

Another added her memory of Hart\u2019s mum, whom she worked alongside; \u201cI worked with your mum at Palm Grove rest home in Christchurch. She was one of the best nurses I\u2019ve worked with. She inspired so many\u201d. <\/p>\n

And Health New Zealand – Te Whata Ora social media account replied to Hart, sharing their thanks for his kind words for those on our medical front lines. <\/p>\n

\u201cKia ora Leigh, social media person here – have passed on your lovely words to the team at Auckland City Hospital, who deserve all the praise in the world. Hope you are feeling much better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEveryone from the highly skilled doctors down to the orderlies moving beds, cleaners and of course the nursing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,95,51,2199,40367,19994,93899,2241,12022,142817,78,73557,7494,111,43,139,9709,69,6293,20442,13033,69724,4965,1516,2069,61,20838,686,12972,102],"class_list":["post-243717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-city","tag-comedian","tag-frontline","tag-hart","tag-hospital","tag-host","tag-impressed","tag-in","tag-leigh","tag-less","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nurses","tag-nz","tag-patients","tag-pays","tag-praised","tag-racist","tag-radio","tag-staff","tag-stay","tag-to","tag-tribute","tag-week","tag-weeklong","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}