Health board takes biscuit for saving crumbs

Free late-night biscuits and toast for doctors and nurses at New Zealand's leading hospital face the chop as the health board attempts to cut back its mounting deficit.

Employees at Auckland City Hospital say the move is petty and does nothing for staff morale, which is at an all-time low. They also claim double standards by management who regularly have "wine and waiters" at their functions.

Chief executive Garry Smith said the board had to learn to live within its means, "we must get control of our finances".

"To achieve this, we have to address the root causes of our deficit. We must carefully manage all aspects of expenditure, including discretionary spending."

Toast and biscuits have been provided by some departments at the hospital for years, particularly for staff working night shift or performing late-night surgery.

One employee said managers had talked about cutting toast and biscuits for those staff, but the employee did not know if the proposal had been put into practice.

"Every week an email arrives from someone about cost-cutting. Everything from making patients use their own pills whenever possible to using less tea, coffee and milk," the employee said. "They go around so commonly we largely ignore them now."

Employers are not required to provide staff with tea, coffee or food.

The employee, who did not want to be named for fear of a formal warning from the board, did not expect food to be provided but said some departments had used their budget to provide a "couple of loaves of bread".

Asking staff to reduce spending on biscuits and toast was petty when the board needed to save millions of dollars.

The health board's deficit was expected to reach about $100 million this year.

"Clearly, for some people whose morale has been low anyway, this is the last little straw to make them really pissed off.

"People see it as another example of rearranging the chairs while the Titanic sinks."

A senior doctor said there had been whispers that sausage rolls and sandwiches at departmental monthly meetings would also go.

"I don't mind them cutting back on my biscuit, but it's the double standard that occurs. At functions provided by management they feel it's appropriate to have waiters, wine and sit around having a good time, but they think their staff should survive on crackers and water."

Junior doctors were provided with free meals, but senior doctors and nurses were not.

The doctor said the benefits in terms of staff morale would be "astronomically greater" if the board kept the status quo.

Mr Smith said the board provided tea, coffee, Milo, milk, sugar and water coolers for staff.

In the past some departments had spent money on items other areas "would not contemplate approving".

Mr Smith said the board needed to cut costs and that meant making "hard decisions". Other areas of spending were also being investigated.

"Where there is no option but to let staff go after we have completed our reviews, I want to be able to look them in the eye knowing that I have exhausted every other avenue of saving money before making that decision."