Midwives are warning an already stretched maternity system faces further overload if Health NZ axes almost all of its roles in maternity support services.
An internal consultation document seen by RNZ proposed to get rid of the national maternity and early years programme Starting Well, reducing six dedicated roles to just one person, who would oversee all child and youth services.
The six roles were part of a proposed reduction of 25 fulltime roles that would be cut from Health NZ’s funding team, announced last week.
Health NZ's proposed reduction of 25 fulltime roles from their funding team was announced last week. Photo / 123rf
Health NZ’s national director of planning, funding, and outcomes Dr Dale Bramley said under the proposal, the Starting Well team would become part of a new team called Age and Stage.
“Our maternity work programme currently sits within our Starting Well team [part of the wider funding team] and includes Kahu Taurima and maternity. Under the consultation document it is proposed that the Starting Well team would be combined with the older person’s team into a newly formed team of Age and Stage.
“The maternity work programme is well under way and will be delivered by June 30, 2025. Once delivered, funding work will be transitioned to regional teams.”
New Zealand College of Midwives chief executive Alison Eddy.
New Zealand College of Midwives chief executive Alison Eddy said she was surprised and shocked to hear about the proposal, which midwives should have been consulted on.
Eddy said combining maternity services with services for older persons felt like “an expedient way to cut people’s jobs without real care and thought about what the jobs are that need to be done, and the specific skillset or focus areas that need to be dedicated in those roles”.
The college would be making a submission on the proposal, she added, advocating for a “specific maternity focus within Health NZ at a central level and sufficient FTEs [fulltime equivalent roles] at senior level to drive changes needed as well as manage the day to day”.
Bramley said the changes related to the funding team consultation that opened last week.
“[It] has a proposed FTE reduction of around 25 people from current levels, as well as the removal of vacancies, some of which have existed for some time.”
- RNZ
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