PSA members working within Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand are not seeing evidence of the Government’s claims about too many administrative and corporate roles in the health system.

Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi National Secretary Kerry Davies says the experience of members is that underfunding is the cause of financial issues at Te Whatu Ora rather than an excess of corporate and administrative roles.

The PSA represents more than 24,000 workers in Te Whatu Ora. These include clinical and non-clinical workers who offer direct patient support, as well as administrators, analysts, policy, data and digital, and other specialist workers.

"Our members’ experience is that there isn’t just a clinical workforce shortage. Many administration and corporate roles are under-staffed and this is having impacts on patients. The hiring freeze since June has made matters worse," Davies says.

"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Shane Reti are trying to demonise health administrators because it serves their political agenda to gut public services. But these workers are the people who follow up after our children’s immunisations, who ring us up to let us know our MRI has been booked, and work on the tech infrastructure to modernise how our health information is held.

"People working on the ground have no idea what the politicians are talking about. But they know the disruption caused to their services is incredibly distressing to staff and patients.

"We have seen this cycle of clinicians being forced to do clerical work because of unwise health cuts under the previous National-led government," Davies says.

This experience of pressure on administrative roles is backed up by analysis of the data Te Whatu Ora publishes. This data shows workers employed in the new health districts, which match the 20 former District Health Board areas brought together as Te Whatu Ora in 2022.

This data shows that there has been lower growth in workers classed as corporate and other (everything from a call centre worker to the head of a hospital) compared with the seven categories of worker providing clinical and patient care.

Since 2018 the growth in corporate and other workers of 19% has been well behind the growth in clinical and direct patient care staff of 27%.

"This data points to parts of Te Whatu Ora having too few non-clinical roles, which are essential for supporting clinical and patient care," Davies says.

Members’ experience

When Te Whatu Ora instigated its hiring freeze in June, the PSA asked members working in the 20 health districts for their experience of roles their impacts on patients and staff of roles that were currently unfilled.

The more than 300 responses we received painted a picture of a health system stretched by unfilled vacancies, including non-clinical roles, to a point where patients are being negatively impacted and workers left facing high levels of stress and burnout.

An example provided of an important administrative role is the work done by staff booking patient appointments to ensure the best use of clinical resources.

"Our members who work in booking administration were clear that understaffing was having an impact on patients. If appointments are not booked early and clearly and adequately communicated, then patients miss out on care or experience delays which can make their condition worse," Davies says.

"Receptionists, who are the are the first person a patient sees, play an important role in ensuring the system works efficiently. Short staffing in reception cause stress and delays, which leads to wasted clinical time," Davies says.

"Understaffed financial teams create risks for patient care with late payment of invoices putting delivery of clinical supplies needed for care at risk.

"The data and our members’ experience are evidence that the complex issues facing the health system need more from Ministers charged with addressing them than just sloganeering.

"The Government made a choice to fund $14 billion of tax cuts when it should be properly funding the health system. The chickens are now coming home to roost and patients are suffering," Davies says.

Note: The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand's largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.

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