There was a net increase of more than 4000 full-time equivalent nurses working in the health system than in 2017, according to Verrall’s office, while pay had increased about 25 per cent, with more to come through a historic pay equity settlement.
Full-time medical specialists had also increased by about 1500.
“So I understand why groups fight their corner. But it’s important to take a balanced view that there has been considerable progress.”
Verrall is also very excited about the timing of her new role with the system undergoing its largest shake-up in decades, with the 20 DHBs replaced by Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora alongside the Māori Health Authority,
Verrall said this would help overcome severe inequities and allow for far greater long-term planning, citing the fact many district health boards operated in deficits and often put off making necessary investments.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity. We finally have the ability to tackle the problems we’ve been talking about my entire career.”
Verrall is wary of giving any exact timeframes and admits many of the major issues will take years to overcome. And with the election set down for October, Verrall is at risk of only a short tenure in the role.
Still, in the short-term, alongside overseeing the implementation of the new system Verrall has set her priorities as the “three Ws”: Workforce, waiting lists, and winter.
By “winter”, she meant handling acute demand, particularly after last year’s spike.
Waitlists referred to planned care, clearing the backlog of procedures delayed during the pandemic. Verrall said she thought the Planned Care Taskforce plan was an “excellent document” and was committed to working through it.
“There are some big problems to overcome and I wouldn’t expect improvements in [planned care] until later in the year, officials say quarter four.”
There was also an issue with data systems, and as Te Whatu Ora progressed they were finding things that “should have been sorted”, she said.
“Now that we’re a national system, we’re able to look at those issues. It is exactly what we mean by ending the postcode lottery.”
On workforce issues, Verrall said she would be working closely with and building connections between the health system, education and training system, and professional bodies.
“We’ve got to all be working in the same direction to strengthen our workforce.
“We can certainly build the workforce from where it is now. There are multiple areas where existing staff are under pressure due to shortages.
“It’s always a hard dividing line in health, where state-funded provision begins and ends.
“But it’s very clear to me at the moment we have workforce shortages we need to act on.”
Verrall said the new system would help with easing pressures.
“We have a single national health system that is out there recruiting for New Zealand, not 20 organisations competing with each other.
“For nurses, and doctors, we have the opportunity to think about how we make the most of their talents and have them doing the things that only they can do.
“It makes sure that some of the burden of administration is shared with others who aren’t people who can only provide clinical care.”
Having worked overseas herself, including in Singapore, Verrall said she did not see New Zealanders heading overseas as a negative thing but the conditions needed to be right for them to return.
“We want highly qualified people. I want my specialist who looks after me to have had good international experiences. I don’t think that’s a problem.”
She said the public system would never compete with private hospitals overseas, but New Zealand was closer to international competitors such as Australia than ever before.
Looking further ahead Verrall said improving the standard of primary and preventative care was “really important”.
National has been promoting a return of health targets, which Verrall said she was not opposed to on principle, pointing out her commitment to Smokefree 2025 and eliminating HIV and Hepatitis C.
“But I think a target alone without resources and careful thinking about the rest of the system is just a stunt.”
On recent measles cases and fears of an outbreak, Verrall said she was “extremely concerned”, especially given record low child immunisation rates.
Verrall said, however, she was confident Te Whatu Ora was well-prepared, especially given lessons learned and systems implemented throughout the pandemic.
These lessons also applied to vaccinations.
“From Covid we learned that hard-to-reach groups often will accept care from someone in their community more than they would from traditional clinical services.
“We’ve trained over 100 people to become vaccinators, we need to scale that that up. But, we’re doing all the operational things we can.”
