Health Minister Shane Reti says previous government ‘needs to own’ Health NZ funding gap

• Health ministers Dr Shane Reti and Casey Costello addressed the media after new documents showed “internal conflict” before the sacking of the Health NZ board.
• Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy disputed claims of inadequate funding and a “manufactured health crisis”.
• Levy said he believed they had “stabilised” the financial side of Heath NZ.

Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti says the previous government “needs to own” any shortfalls in healthcare funding after documents released yesterday showed that Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ insisted it was on track to meet its 2023/24 budget and provide more than half a billion dollars in savings up until March this year, before a sudden deterioration in its financial position.

Reti and was joined by Associate Health Minister Casey Costello in Manukau to announce a pilot to increase childhood immunisations, by training the Whānau Āwhina Plunket workforce as vaccinators in locations where vaccine coverage is particularly low.

The Health NZ documents also showed that the board strongly rejected allegations from the Government that it was not on top of its finances, and confirmed that the main driver of its financial position was an overspend on nurses.

”It would be naive to think it [finding savings] won’t be challenging. I do have faith we can achieve the goals that have been set,” Reti said.

Reti said Health NZ missed warning signs before hitting a shortfall.

“Where was the internal performance monitoring framework? Where was the operating model? It wasn’t there.

“They should have been monitoring the increase in workforce against budget.

“The board had first visibility on the financials. Again, there weren’t procedures in place to watch and monitor.”

Costello refused to answer any questions about heated tobacco product tax advice.

Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy today told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that he disputed claims this was a “manufactured health crisis”.

“Actually, the health expenditure has been increasing year on year for many years.

Commissioner Lester Levy said Health NZ is beginning to make 'meaningful reductions'. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“It would be completely wrong to say anything is contrived.”

He said he believed they had “stabilised” the financial side of Health NZ and were starting on “small but meaningful reductions”.

“This is not a random cost reduction, this is just bringing us back to budget.”

He said that even though there has been an increase in funding, there has been a “relatively small” increase in output – which he is trying to fix.

Levy said a lot of the issues come from people pushing back because of “vested interests or their own beliefs”.

Levy also disputed claims they were not adding new staff and said staff additions were the highest that had been in eight years.

He said the number was more than the last few years combined.

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