Nurses in general practices have been "insulted" after missing out yet again after community nurses received a pay rise.
The Government announced it will spend $200 million a year to bring the pay of those working in aged care facilities, hospices, homecare support, and Māori and Pacific healthcare organisations in line with hospital nurses. It closes a pay gap of tens of thousands of dollars.
But the windfall doesn't extend to nurses working in general practices, even though they've been striking for pay parity this year.
"Insulted, and incredibly disappointed and sad. They've given years to the pandemic," said Dr Tim Malloy, chairperson of the General Practice Owners Association.
Health Minister Andrew Little said more "hard evidence" needs to be provided.
"One of the GP groups, I asked them for information, they provided it and it didn't show there was much of a gap," he said. "Even when I went back to them and said, 'This is what I'm seeing, is there any more information?'"
Dr Malloy said he "didn't understand it".
"We are talking about a relatively small sum of money."
It's estimated it would cost another $12 million a year to give GP nurses a rise in line with their hospital counterparts.
"In a lot of those cases, the GPs have made up those wages for those nurses just to keep them there," said NZ Nurses Organisation CEO Paul Goulter.
About 20,000 community nurses are set to get a pay rise as a result of the deal, and the Aged Care Association is overjoyed about it.
"It's really significant for aged care, which has often been a poor cousin to the public health system," said Simon Wallace, Aged Care Association CEO.
"We've been losing nurses to public hospitals, because of that pay difference between $10,000 and $15,000. What this announcement will do, it will help retention, it will help recruitment."
