Govt Should Be Increasing Funding, Not Forcing Another Rushed Restructure On Te Whatu Ora

• 44 jobs proposed to go across teams in
  Hospital and Specialty Services, including Manager Disabled
  Peoples Health, and
  Commissioning
• Te Whatu Ora CE
  concedes it could complicate changes already
  underway

The Government should be
funding the health system properly rather than axing more
jobs in a rushed and reckless attempt to save
money.

“Make no mistake, today’s restructuring will
only complicate the ability of Te Whatu Ora to deliver a
more effective health system,” said Kerry Davies, National
Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga
Here Tikanga Mahi.

Te Whatu Ora is proposing to cut 44
roles across teams that in many cases have only recently
been established through other change proposals to support
the overall process that aims to unify and simplify the
health system.

Vital expertise in Māori health will
also be lost with the proposal to axe the Director Māori
Health and the Chief Advisor Māori Health
roles.

“This latest change has blindsided health
workers at Te Whatu Ora who are already coping with a series
of restructures this year alone. Why impose more change on
top of other significant change?” said Davies.

“The Te
Whatu Ora chief executive concedes this is a challenge,
telling impacted staff today, ‘I am mindful of where many
teams are at in their change journeys, and this could be
seen to further complicate change not yet fully
implemented.’”

One PSA member who faces being
disestablished for the second time in a year, says this
proposal came out of nowhere.

“We are just baffled by
the logic of this. The work we do will still have to be
done, but the burden will now fall on other teams, which
have already been stripped back so this change means they
will just be less effective in helping design and implement
a better health system for New Zealanders.

“It just
feels like the work I do is not important enough to
Ministers – yet it still has to be done or the whole system
won’t work well. It makes no sense.”

“If this latest
change has been triggered by a so called ‘financial
crisis’ then it’s all the Government’s own making,”
said Kerry Davies. “It made a choice to give away billions
of dollars in tax cuts, rather than properly funding the
health system New Zealanders need.

“Now it’s
desperately searching for savings everywhere and looking for
scapegoats. Further restructuring is not going to
help.

“The Prime Minister talks about ‘management
mush’ being removed – this disrespects the important work
people are doing to make the new health system work better.
It’s insulting to so many health workers.

“The PSA
urges the Government to think again and pause this
restructure. If it really wants to deliver better health
services to New Zealanders, then give the health system the
funds it needs to do the
job.”

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