New Zealand has raised wages for aged care nurses to put them on equal footing with hospital nurses, in a bid to stem workforce shortages.

The NZ$200-million-per-year injection will enable aged care providers to bridge the gap in terms of worker pay and hopefully retain workers, said Health Minister Andrew Little (pictured), as reported in Stuff.

“The biggest differences are with aged and residential care, there’s no question there’s a significant disparity there.

“They are losing nursing staff and healthcare system staff to the hospital sector, and they need some stability, and they need something that helps them retain the people they’ve got, and attract people to that sector as well,” he said.

Simon Wallace (pictured), chief executive of the NZ Aged Care Association (NZACA), has welcomed the move, saying it puts residential aged care on a “level playing field” with hospitals to attract and retain Registered Nurses.

“The Aged Care Association is looking forward to working with the Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora to make sure the plan achieves its intended purpose. We know it will be complex, as there are over 650 aged residential care facilities in New Zealand.

“While this funding boost is not a silver bullet, it will go a long way to resolving the issues in the aged residential care sector,” he said.

Estimates earlier this year found that NZ’s aged care sector was short approximately 1,000 RNs.