Rural Māori at risk: Unsafe hospital job share called out

Te Tiratū Iwi Māori Partnership Board representing 114,000 whānau in Tainui waka rohe is calling for a full review of an integrated cleaner-security staffing model in two rural Waikato hospitals which serve communities with high Māori populations.

The Board was alerted by media reports about Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand’s decision, which raised serious concerns regarding patient and staff safety, as well as the practicality of merging the roles.

Implemented at Te Kuiti and Tokoroa hospitals, the model combines the roles of hospital cleaner and security officer — a move that has been called “a life-or-death matter”.[1] These hospitals that sit within Te Tiratū Iwi Māori Partnership Board’s rohe are directly relevant to its work to ensure that Māori have a real say in local health design, delivery, and decision-making.

“Rural Māori communities should not be treated as testing grounds for potentially unsafe and ill-conceived workforce experiments. It is time for Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand to put the safety and dignity of our people first and uphold the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” said Hagen Tautari, co-chair of Te Tiratū Iwi Māori Partnership Board.

It reflects a wider systemic failure to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi and engage iwi as genuine partners in health governance. At its heart it’s about how the Crown treats mana whenua in the decisions that directly impact whānau – and how it involves the Treaty partner at a locality as an equal.

A recent Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand review confirms that while cleaning duties were being carried out, security coverage was inadequate and staff felt unsafe, particularly during overnight shifts where only two nurses and one cleaner-security officer are present.

“This staffing model fails our people, healthcare professionals and hapori. It undermines basic safety, disrespects the skill of both roles, and ignores the lived realities of rural hospitals — where Māori make up a significant proportion of patients and staff,” Tautari added.

Key concerns highlighted by Te Tiratū Iwi Māori Partnership Board include:

• Safety is non-negotiable. It is a matter of time before preventable harm occurs. Staff cannot be in two places at once during critical incident and expecting them to compromise both patient and worker safety.
• It’s a false economy. The model was meant to save over $200,000 in its first year. It only saved $137,000 — a shortfall that cannot justify the identified safety risk and workforce dissatisfaction.
• Rural Māori carry the burden. This model would not be trialled in larger urban hospitals. That it has been tested in predominantly Māori rural communities is a breach of equity and justice.
• Lack of consultation with Treaty partner. Health NZ must uphold its Te Tiriti obligations to work in partnership with Māori – which is not optional, symbolic, or after-the-fact.

Te Tiratū Iwi Māori Partnership Board is now calling on Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand to commit to a community-informed review that centres safety, wellbeing, and equity, invest in separate, skilled roles for security and cleaning that are fit for purpose and protect whānau, support staff and nurses in rural hospitals through properly resourced, safe, and sustainable models of care.

[1] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/564931/hospital-staff-concerned-about-combined-cleaner-security-officer-roles