4-day Strike Halts MRI & Nuclear Medicine Services

15 August 2024

MRI and Nuclear Medicine Technologists in Hospitals across New Zealand will cease work for four days commencing 0600 tomorrow morning.

This comes after Te Whatu Ora fails to adequately address pay claims in an environment where the differential between public and private pay rates has reached over 30%.

“Currently Te Whatu Ora can’t retain staff and spends more on outsourcing than it does on wages” says APEX advocate Abbey Hebson, “over 30% of MRI & NM scans are outsourced to private radiology providers because Te Whatu Ora does not have the capacity to perform these scans in house.”

APEX members have claimed to address this pay differential and incentivise staff to stay in the public system to reduce the need for outsourcing in the future. “The cost of outsourcing last year alone was over $20 million, it would be a better use of money to instead invest into Te Whatu Ora’s own staff in order to future proof the workforce and keep a public MRI & NM service going.” Says Mrs Hebson.

 

ENDS

 

For further information please contact:

Abbey Hebson – APEX Advocate

Phone: (09) 526 0280 / 021 610 776

Email: mit@apex.org.nz