Public Service Association calls out Health NZ for hosting private healthcare job ads on website

Health New Zealand has confirmed it agreed to allow health employers "across the wider health system" to post their advertisements on the agency's main website. Photo / 123rf

Health New Zealand is allowing private employers to post their job advertisements on the agency’s main careers website.

Previously, the organisation owned and operated a health sector website called Kiwi Health Jobs, but that was decommissioned on July 11.

The Kiwi Health Jobs website now redirects to Health NZ’s careers page.

Head of national people services Elizabeth Jeffs told Newstalk ZB in a statement, “to continue supporting health employers across the wider health system, we agreed to allow them to post their advertisements on our main website at the same cost”.

Jeffs said Kiwi Health Jobs served as a “centralised platform for all health sector job postings, including those from private employers”.

When asked why it was decommissioned, Jeffs said: “The Kiwi Health Jobs website, as it was, was no longer fit for purpose for the cost to maintain. It’s more cost-effective to enable non-Health NZ entities to advertise roles on our own website – if they want to.”

Public Service Association (PSA) union national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said Health NZ should focus on “retaining our existing health workers and paying them properly”.

“There is no role for Health NZ in running a business to assist private health providers to recruit staff from the public sector. The focus should be on paying public health workers properly and treating them well in order to retain them,” she said.

Fitzsimons said allowing the advertisements on Health NZ’s main website would only worsen an “acute shortage of health workers in our public system”.

The majority of the job ads on the website are currently for public sector roles within Health NZ and private healthcare roles are signalled in each ad.

One of those listed on the Health NZ careers centre, seeking a theatre services manager for Southern Cross Hamilton Hospital, notes a strong background in private healthcare would be beneficial to applicants.

“This is not a Health NZ role, please apply to the company direct,” the listing said.

Confirmation of the changes comes as the Government is eyeing further work with the private health sector.

A publicly-released letter of expectations from Health Minister Simeon Brown to Commissioner Lester Levy showed the minister asked the agency to consider giving decade-long outsourcing contracts for certain surgeries.

Brown told the commissioner he also wanted Health NZ to partner with primary health organisations, the community sector and private providers to “maximise delivery” for New Zealanders.

“Health NZ is expected to maximise partnering with the private sector (including entering into agreements) particularly on low acuity, high volume surgical procedures, to enable public hospitals to focus on acute care,” the letter said.

The minister also called for the agency to maximise third-party revenue sources and have clear budgets and output plans to operate “efficiently and effectively”.

Health NZ is aiming to break even around the 2026/27 financial year after a $1.4 billion savings directive that was put in place in 2024.

Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.