{"id":598837,"date":"2026-09-13T06:50:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T06:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/598837\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T06:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T06:50:40","slug":"gisborne-hospital-ed-nurses-strike-over-understaffing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/598837\/","title":{"rendered":"Gisborne Hospital ED nurses strike over understaffing"},"content":{"rendered":"
Former ED nurse Sarah Kapene raised the purple NZNO flag as she rode her horse Pearl across the road outside the hospital grounds to the picket line. <\/p>\n
ED nurse Collier is the third of four generations of healthcare workers. Daughter Eden Collier, mother Karen Macdonald and grandmother Alison Macdonald joined her on the picket line.<\/p>\n
A family with four generations of healthcare workers joined the NZNO picket line. Eden Collier (from left), Karen MacDonald, Alison MacDonald and NZNO delegate Camille Collier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not asking for more, we\u2019re asking for enough,\u201d Camille Collier said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t feel that we\u2019ve been heard. Nobody wants to strike but we feel we\u2019ve got no other choice.\u201d <\/p>\n
The striking nurses were cheered by about 60 supporters, who wore purple and held up signs encouraging passing drivers to honk to show their support. <\/p>\n
Representatives of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union and the Public Service Association were there, as well as some general election candidates \u2013 the Green Party\u2019s Jordan Walker and Heather Te Au Skipworth, and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori\u2019s Haley Maxwell. <\/p>\n
Speaking to the Gisborne Herald, Dolman-Tuhou described the atmosphere as \u201camazing\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor a show-out like this, it\u2019s amazing to see. [We are] so grateful, so thankful to have everyone\u2019s support here today,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here today because the Gisborne Hospital emergency department has come to a point that is not sustainable for our patients, for our staff and for our community. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lost a ton of nurses here in the last year and we\u2019ve got to a breaking point now where it\u2019s unsustainable in that department. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more nurses. We\u2019re fighting for our patients and we\u2019re fighting for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former ED nurse Sarah Kapene raised the purple NZNO flag as she rode her horse Pearl across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3470,26034,13973,15974,12506,134,527,2241,3274,5983,5812,111,139,9709,69,1523,25530,49191,4485,8229,219319,4524,2201],"class_list":["post-598837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-clear","tag-department","tag-ed","tag-emergency","tag-gisborne","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-hospitals","tag-levels","tag-make","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nurses","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-safer","tag-staffing","tag-strike","tag-they","tag-understaffing","tag-want","tag-went"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598837","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=598837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}