Media release from Health NZ Commissioner, Professor Lester Levy

The reset at Health New Zealand is beginning to take shape with funding starting to be freed up to strengthen the clinical frontline and provide better health care closer to home for more New Zealanders.

Health New Zealand Commissioner Professor Lester Levy says getting better healthcare to New Zealanders is a step closer, with the announcement that 50 new Senior Medical Officers will be employed across New Zealand.

“From tomorrow Clinical Services will be able to access a pool of funding to employ new Senior Medical Officers.

“This initiative will directly impact frontline services and help us reduce waiting times for patients.

“I’ve always said that the safest wait is the shortest wait, and these new positions will be mainly directed towards reducing waiting times as well as strengthening our clinical frontline in the regions.

“Alongside this we are establishing a fund to recruit senior specialist nurses and/or allied health professionals to hospitals and specialist services.

“The purpose of this fund is to enhance patient safety, clinical quality and help to reduce waiting times for our patients.

“Over the past year we have recruited more clinical staff than ever before.  We now have 4,107 more frontline staff than we did a year ago. This is about as many new FTEs in the two previous years combined.

“We also know there are areas of health where quick decisions need to be made to improve staff and patient wellbeing. This is why the package announced today includes a $12m fund which will allow the regions to make fast decisions to fix smaller niggly issues.

“An example could be a broken water cooler in the staff room, or new toys for a children’s ward. This fund will be split equally among the regions and empower our new DCEs to make quick local decisions and solve local problems.

“This funding is from outside current regional budgets and all positions created through this package are new to Health New Zealand.

“This is the first important step in the journey of strengthening our frontline clinical services as well as getting back to budget. It is an important milestone for us.

“We will continue to work very hard to get back to budget and redirect funding to our frontline services – this is challenging, but essential.”