Hiring freeze affecting frontline health jobs, says union

Health NZ – Te Whatu Ora insists a hiring freeze does not extend to the frontline. But some workers in the health sector say the barriers to hiring doctors are so high they are effectively a freeze.

Hospitals and specialist services say they face barriers to hiring new doctors, despite assurances that a hiring freeze does not apply to frontline jobs.

Health NZ introduced restrictions on new hires and staffing levels in April to address overspending, and on June 13 confirmed a complete halt to recruitment for all non-frontline roles.

Chief executive Margie Apa said at the time that the pause applied to hospital roles that were not “patient-facing” and public health roles that were not “community-facing”.

But the Herald has heard reports from around the country of clinical positions not being filled, replacements being denied or delayed, and all hires needing signoff from high-ranking officials.

“It feels like a freeze from the frontline,” said Dr Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

Members were reporting multiple hurdles to filling specialist vacancies, she said. In some cases, they had reached the reference-checking stage and been told they needed to pause.

Some members said they had been told they needed special permission to fill vacancies that were part of their existing, budgeted staffing levels.

“It is just weird,” Dalton said. “There is this discourse at one level, ‘Don’t worry we won’t touch the frontline’. But they absolutely are.”

Reports about hiring problems had come from emergency departments, public health, cardiology, cancer services and others.

A staff member at Auckland City Hospital told the Herald there were four clinical vacancies within their department.

Candidates had been found for all the roles but the staff member said Health NZ had told management to delay sending job offers for eight weeks. They said this delay was to ensure the hospital stayed within budget targets.

“These vacancies are putting stress on current department employees, who are picking up the extra workload,” said the staff member, who did not want to be named.

Similar delays were also happening at Starship children’s hospital, where some clinical roles remained unfilled as management awaited approval from officials.

In some cases, hospital staff were being shifted or transferred without being replaced.

A staff member at North Shore Hospital said nurses and doctors were being moved to the new surgical building, Tōtara Haumaru, to allow it to open but were not being replaced in their old roles.

That meant the hospital’s existing surgical theatres would be short-staffed when the new building opened next month.

Until last week, every new hire within the public health system – from cleaners to senior doctors – had to be approved at Health NZ’s national office.

As of June 13, this responsibility was delegated to hospital leaders in each region. A panel of representatives from each part of the sector uses a “traffic light” system to determine which areas are the highest priority for recruitment.

Apa said in a statement that Health NZ had made significant advances in filling vacancies through a range of initiatives in the past 18 months.

Data published by Health NZ shows growth in some health roles, particularly nurses, allied health and resident medical officers. The Health NZ workforce has gained 1200 nurses in the last quarter.

At the same time, the number of corporate and back-office jobs fell by 137 in the last quarter. Health NZ plans to disestablish about 2300 non-clinical jobs as part of the health reforms, aimed at reducing duplication of back-office roles.

Apa said the successful recruitment in some areas meant those professional groups had more staff than had been budgeted for.

“In turn, this meant we found ourselves spending over our current-year budget. Health NZ has also been affected by the same general cost pressures felt in the wider economy.”

In April, Health NZ introduced a series of measures to save money, including limitations on replacing sick staff.

The staff member at North Shore Hospital said this meant sick staff were sometimes not replaced for their shift. Instead of a shift co-ordinator deciding whether sick staff would be covered, the decision was now escalated to the hospital’s senior managers.

A doctor at a regional hospital said staff had to go through extra levels of approval for unfilled shifts and emergency sickness cover. There were so many hurdles that staff often gave up and did not seek cover until “things truly go down the drain”, they said.

Isaac Davison is an Auckland-based reporter who covers health issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics and social issues.