Health layoffs cost $8m

By FRANCESCA MOLD

Auckland's three district health boards have paid more than $4 million in redundancy payments to staff who have left in the past year.

Figures provided to the National Party's health spokeswoman, Dr Lynda Scott, show almost $8 million has been spent on severance payments by district health boards throughout the country.

Auckland District Health Board had the highest redundancy bill, paying just over $3 million to 123 workers.

The average payment for departing Auckland board workers was $24,835. The largest payout was $196,796.

Waitemata District Health Board, in the north and west of Greater Auckland, spent $575,668 on 20 redundancy payments and Counties Manakau, which looks after the South Auckland community, paid $432,454 to 34 former staff members.

A letter to Dr Scott from Auckland board chief executive Graeme Edmond said the payments were in addition to any retirement gratuities, pay in lieu of notice and annual leave entitlements.

Mr Edmond said his board had more redundancies than others because of restructuring designed to make the organisation more efficient. That included reducing the number of managers and contracting out preparation of patient meals.

Increased redundancies would continue for a couple of years, he said.

Dr Scott said she was concerned that most of the payments went to administrators and managers.

"Frontline doctors and nurses must be sickened by administrators and managers walking away with $8 million of health funding in a year."

Dr Scott said the money should have been spent on services such as cancer treatment, hip operations and other surgery that the health system told patients it could not afford.

Health Minister Annette King said the sum of almost $8 million in severance payments was small compared to the overall health budget of $8.6 billion a year.

It was also better to make staff redundant than keeping them on the payroll when their positions were no longer necessary.

Herald feature: Our sick hospitals