Health workforce boosted with funding for 50 new senior doctors, 75 nurses

New Zealand’s health workforce is to be boosted with 50 new senior doctors and about 75 senior specialist nurses.

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti and Health NZ Commissioner Professor Lester Levy said about $30 million in extra funding will boost Health NZ’s clinical workforce.

A further $12m fund will help with minor hospital improvements, the pair said in the announcement at Whangārei Hospital on Tuesday.

Reti said the approximately $20m for 50 senior doctors will help fill critical workforce gaps and address health targets, particularly in regional or provincial hospitals.

“This will reduce wait times, enhance patient safety and support vulnerable specialties like dermatology,” he said.

The $10m for senior specialist nurses and allied health professionals will focus on areas where there are critical shortages, such as rural areas and in particular specialties like mental health, maternity and critical care.

The comments come as Health NZ is under increasing pressure to meet its health targets while shaving $1.4 billion off costs.

Its board was sacked in July and Levy put in as commissioner to help control overspending to the tune of $130 million a month.

Since then, Health NZ has accepted just over 400 voluntary redundancies from staff not on the clinical front line. More redundancies are expected.

At the same time, clinical staff said they are under pressure due to a lack of suitable staff, with the likes of Dargaville Hospital operating without doctors on site for most overnight shifts.

Nurses have complained roles are not being filled when staff are on leave or the position is vacant.

Dr Shane Reti and Professor Lester Levy say the extra $42 million in funding will boost senior doctor numbers and make improvements in hospitals. Photo / Denise Piper

Levy said there was a paradox between need to meet the budget and investing in front-line staff.

The Health NZ back office, such as administrators and managers, had swollen to a size it should never have got to and some of those jobs were not improving patient safety, he said.

“This organisation has taken on thousands and thousands of additional management and administrative staff, so we’re in a process of re-sizing that ... It surprises me that it even got to the size that it did,” Levy said.

“Even in an organisation like ours, there is money that is not well spent and we’re trying to turn that into more front-line staff.”

Levy said clinical recruitment into rural and provincial areas was key, to help address inequities in those areas when compared to the larger cities.

In rural areas where vacancies can not be filled, new thinking around recruitment is needed, including having clinicians lead the process, he said.

Levy said he wanted to see clinicians get more involved in the decision-making process, so the system becomes less bureaucratic and decisions are made “closer to the action”.

“A lot of this is good news for places like Northland and Whangārei: in the next year we’d like to see most of the decisions being made here.”

Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.