PSA Urges Government To Come Clean On Real Agenda Behind Slashing Health Further

Further huge health cuts unveiled by the Government will only harm the services New Zealanders depend on.

"The Government is being irresponsible in ordering further deep cuts at a time it should be investing more in the health service," said Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi Assistant Secretary Warwick Jones.

"The Government chose to give $14 billion in tax cuts to landlords and middle-income earners and ignore the clear need for significant additional investment in health to meet the needs of a growing and ageing population, and the increasing cost of medical technology.

"We are not talking about the budget for a household or a business. Budgeting in health has for a long time been about population growth requiring increased investment to just maintain current levels of service provision, let alone fix well-documented major workforce issues.

"After so much restructuring in health in recent years, proposing even more smacks of a secret agenda.

"First it was Kāinga Ora, and now it’s Te Whatu Ora. We are deeply concerned the Government is setting the stage for increasing privatisation of health services," says Jones.

Minister Reti referred to growth of administrative and management roles as a reason for drastic action.

"Our experience is the system has been losing people, not adding to the workforce. This is another major health decision that seems to be taking place in a totally different reality to the one health workers are living in.

"There have been 18 change processes for health workers in the last two years alone. The whole point of them was to ‘simplify to unify,’ including reducing duplication of roles as 29 DHBs and entities became one. It is extremely unclear who the Minister is talking about."

Workforce data held by the PSA indicates administrative workforce levels have not changed significantly since the (the DHB) Administration and Clerical pay equity claim - a process that went from 2018 to 2022.

"Is the Minister referring to people who moved to Te Whatu Ora from the Ministry of Health, the Health Promotion Agency, or other entities as new roles? Management positions have been created but they replace roles of local managers at DHBs, not generating a raft of new ones."

"Endless change does not lead to a strong and effective health system; it leads to chaos and brings a great emotional toll."

"It is unfathomable to think a health system already under significant strain could restrict $1.4 billion further without impacting how people receive health services," Jones says.

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The PSA represents more than 25,000 allied, public health, scientific, technical, nursing, and administration workers in hospitals and community health services.

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