Health NZ offers redundancies – but who will fill the gaps?
One union claims as many as 20,000 roles could be eligible for voluntary redundancy.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, August 29.
In today’s edition: Darleen Tana will have their day in court in a bid to stop expulsion from parliament, Labour and National squabble over police data, and Could the End of Life Choice Act be extended? But first, voluntary redundancies for some at Health NZ.
Voluntary redundancies at Health NZ
Some staff working at Te Whatu Ora Health NZ have been asked to apply for voluntary redundancy, an email leaked to media and subsequently shared by the health agency revealed. The Bulletin and other media outlets have seen the letter from Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa which said that staff working in health administration, advisory and knowledge roles could apply for a voluntary payout. “It is now clear the initiatives already in place will not, by themselves, resolve the financial issue or ensure we have the right people in the right place,” Apa wrote to staff. Though redundancy is, at this point, only available to certain staff members, a spokesperson for the health agency wouldn’t comment on whether it could potentially impact those working on the frontline. However, as Stuff’s Bridie Witton reported, the letter noted that staff working in other areas could register their interest for redundancy should they become eligible in the future.
Unions and opposition respond
The move prompted backlash from the key unions representing health workers, reported the Herald’s Azaria Howell, with the national secretary of the Public Service Association saying Te Whatu Ora had been forced into this situation due to the “unhinged and unplanned defunding of healthcare” by the government. “This government is deliberately destabilising the foundations of the overall health system that make every operation, diagnosis, vaccine, scan, or other public and community health service possible,” Kerry Davies said. The PSA said it believed 20,000 roles could be eligible for redundancy. Paul Goulter from the Nurses Organisation told Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan there was a worry among health workers about whether there could be a knock-on effect from any job losses. “Nurses [have been] saying – who's going to do that work? And if it's us, who's going to do the rest of the work we have to leave behind?"
Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall, in a statement shared by NZ Doctor, said the staff in the firing line were the “backbone of our health system” and patient care could be affected by the loss of roles.
A health system under pressure
The news of potential job losses at the agency just adds to what has been a shaky few weeks for the health sector. Here is just a small selection of recent headlines:
West Coast practices quit loss-making weekend clinics (paywalled)
Workforce woes prod rise in virtual services for Whanganui Regional Health clinic (paywalled)
While these are all distinct and unfortunate circumstances, they all stem from the same root problem: the health system is under intense pressure. It’s been little over a month since the government dumped the remaining board members at Health NZ and brought in a commissioner, Lester Levy, to oversee a structural overhaul. It was in the face of what the government labelled “overspending” to the tune of $130m a month. But some, such as a group of university experts in this piece for The Conversation, have argued such “overspending” was simply a response to systemic underfunding. According to that report, New Zealand has historically underspent on health when compared with other countries.
The government and the health agency’s new commissioner have maintained that frontline roles will be safe throughout any restructure. In a recent opinion piece for the Herald, Lester pushed back at claims published in the Medical Health Journal that critical roles within the agency were at risk of being cut due to financial issues at the agency. However, he also rejected the narrative that more funding on top of what was made available in the latest budget would help resolve ongoing problems, writing “[recent] health funding increases have not led to anywhere near commensurate value in terms of public benefit”.
The GP squeeze
A lot of the focus in recent weeks has been on emergency rooms and hospitals, for understandable reasons. However, the health squeeze is also impacting general practices – GPs – and rural areas are particularly facing the consequences. The Press has been covering this angle exceptionally in recent weeks through the “Fractures on the Frontline” series. In a recent report, Mariné Lourens noted that New Zealand is short close to 500 GPs as workers leave the sector due to burn out. It’s expected the GP shortfall will increase in the coming years, which will likely mean more practices turn to “telehealth” services in place of actual, face-to-face consultation. This has been particularly prominent in more isolated parts of the country where access to services can be limited. This report from Leanne Warr at the Bush Telegraph looks at the struggle to secure staff for rural healthcare, and the longer term impacts it can have on patients – limited access to health can mean worse health outcomes for those in rural New Zealand. With further job losses in the pipeline, will things get worse before they get better?
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Darleen Tana heads to court in bid to halt Green meeting
Independent MP Darleen Tana has launched a last minute legal bid against her former party, the Greens, in an effort to stop a meeting that could see her kicked out of parliament. Tana resigned from the Greens following a lengthy report into how much they knew about allegations of migrant exploitation at their husband’s bike business. However, Tana has remained in parliament as an independent. As Stuff’s Bridie Witton reported, the rogue MP filed an application for interim injunction, set to be heard at the Auckland High Court today, that could stall a Green Party meeting over the weekend where delegates will decide whether or not to use the party-hopping law.
In a recent analysis for The Spinoff, Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis argued that a legal bid like that now launched by Tana probably wouldn’t work because of a prior Supreme Court case that set a precedent around the operation of the party-hopping law. In addition: “There’s a real question as to whether judges can even look at this issue any more following the passage of the Parliamentary Privilege Act 2014, which expands the range of ‘parliamentary proceedings’ that are put beyond the courts’ reach,” Geddis wrote.
Who has their police figures right: Labour or National?
The two biggest parties have been squabbling over which has their figures correct when it comes to the number of police on the beat. In a media statement yesterday, Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen claimed the number of foot patrols had decreased under the coalition government, while the minister responsible, Mark Mitchell, said it was the opposite. Analysis by 1News has backed up the government’s claim, showing an overall upward trend in the police figures, though noting a consistent spike every December. Mitchell said the opposition had “cherry-picked” the data.
Meanwhile, Newsroom Pro’s Laura Walters (paywalled) has reported that the government’s planned gang crackdown legislation has been widened at the 11th hour, giving police broader powers to search people’s homes. The new addition was not consulted on during the select committee process, Walters wrote. It’s expected the government’s two anti-gang bills will pass their third reading today.
Listen: Spotify's data alchemist explains the mysteries of music streaming
Former data alchemist for Spotify Glenn McDonald joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss how Spotify does (and doesn’t) work for artists, and why the music streaming service doesn’t stretch your listening habits.
Click and Collect
Rumours are heating up once again at Peter Jackson’s long-planned movie museum after the film director paid almost twice the valuation for a collection of Wellington properties. (BusinessDesk, paywalled)
Could the End of Life Choice Act, introduced following a 2020 referendum, be extended?
After spending 10 months cancelling the previous government’s projects, Chris Bishop wants a bipartisan infrastructure pipeline. For more on the new National Infrastructure Agency, I enjoyed Amelia Wade’s report for The Post.
A new report shows where the $1.96 billion allocated in the 2019 Wellbeing Budget for mental health was spent. (NZDoctor, paywalled)
Max Rashbrooke asks whether an election can really be fair if one party has four times more money than the other? NZ’s independent foreign policy is getting a “reset” and Gabi Lardies explains what that actually means. Madeleine Holden on what it’s like running horse treks in the Far North. Writer and artist Jo Randerson on her relationship with Janet Frame, who was born 100 years ago today. Alex Casey speaks to Mātaki Mai organiser Tarryn Ryan about what the new film festival means for Ōtautahi. And Gabi Lardies has the first instalment of our new etiquette guide: How to shit when you’re not at home.
That’s it for this morning, thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow.
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The budget included a real per person CUT in health spending of some 3%, compared to the previous financial year. And this follows decades of underfunding. Lester Levy is either deluded or gas-lighting when he denies the REAL health issue of austerity by this government.
A message to our currency-issuing government - just fund health properly.
Like every other section of the public service where cuts have focused on the so-called "back office", how can anyone in their right mind not see that making cuts to "support" roles will affect the "front line"? If there's no one there to undertake administrative tasks, for example, who do you think is going to have to do them? The commissioner? Shane Reti? To use the coalition's (and, unfortunately, the media's) denigrating and reductionist parlance, the "front line" (of any public service) cannot function without a "back office".