Frontline health worker roles are not being advertised despite vacancies being “very stressful, angering and depressing” for staff, a medical union says.

It comes after Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora chief executive Margie Apa said last week the agency had paused recruitment on non-patient-facing roles and public health roles that were not community-facing as it attempted to bring down an overspend.

In a statement to the Bay of Plenty Times on Thursday, Apa said recruitment for clinical roles continued “but decision-making has been brought closer to the frontline”.

Regional recruitment forums had replaced a national process, and would approve recruitment “where appropriate”, with a focus on safety and clinical delivery.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the recruitment pause was “absolutely” impacting frontline workers.

She knew of vacancies in pediatrics, public health, cardiology, and emergency departments not being filled after someone had left. This included in the Te Manawa Taki region, which covered the Bay of Plenty, Lakes, Tairāwhiti Gisborne, Taranaki and Waikato.

Other examples included people being in the middle of a recruitment or application process “and the process being halted, paused, or told that that job will no longer be filled at this time”.

“And services where they’re already working short, seeing no jobs advertised for that service.”

Dalton said it was “very stressful, angering and depressing” for staff.

While she said the vacancies may be filled in time, the gap in the meantime created “pressure … and risk” for staff, or required hiring a locum.

More than $8.6 million was spent on outsourced/locum medical specialists for Health NZ hospitals in the Bay of Plenty last year, and just over $5 million in the neighbouring Lakes district, NZME reported last month.

Regional recruitment forums approve jobs ‘where appropriate’

Apa said recruitment for clinical roles continued, “but decision-making has been brought closer to the frontline”.

She said the agency had moved from a national approval process to one led by hospital leaders.

“This means decisions being made where local needs are best understood and prioritised.”

Apa said regional recruitment forums would assess, prioritise and “where appropriate approve recruitment”.

“Staff and patient safety and clinical delivery remain our focus.”

Apa said Health NZ had recently made significant advances filling vacancies following the success of a range of workforce initiatives in 18 months.

In the year to March, Health NZ recruited 205 senior medical officers and the fulltime equivalents of an extra 2899.5 nursing staff, 103.5 resident medical officers and 390.8 allied health workers.

Apa said this led to some professional groups having fulltime equivalent staff ahead of budget.

“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.”

Staff encouraged to take annual leave

A letter to Dalton from Health NZ on April 17 – sighted by the Bay of Plenty Times – outlined the agency’s work to help manage its budget for the 2023/24 financial year.

The letter included 14 measures to manage personnel costs including no double shifts, lunch breaks not being missed to avoid additional payments being triggered, and encouraging staff to take annual leave “as much as possible” around public holidays.

“We are currently operating with a deficit and cannot end the financial year in this situation,” the letter said.

It said Health NZ had to manage “significant cost pressures” amid “a challenging economic environment”.

“We must live within our means as we deliver health services to New Zealanders.”

Dalton said the measures had made “a really difficult situation worse” and been “very bad for morale”.

She understood Health NZ had not achieved the cost savings they had hoped from these measures.

Health NZ was approached for a response to these comments.

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.