Sarah Dalton: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists ED on the new regional directors at Health NZ

There’s confidence the new regional roles at Health New Zealand will offer something new. 

The Government's appointed four Deputy Chief Executives to run different regions from next month.  

It comes after its board was sacked and replaced by a sole commissioner.  

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director Sarah Dalton told Ryan Bridge that these appointments will replace existing regional directors.  

She says they've got a different set of responsibilities, including bringing parts of the funded health sector back under their oversight. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In a throwback to dhb's Health New Zealand has appointed
four new regional directors aimed at bringing decision making back
to the local level. It comes just a week after
the board was sacked and replaced with the commissioner. The
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton's with
me now, Sarah, good morning, Good to have you on

(00:22):
the program. First of all, does this seem counterintuitive to you?
At one level we've got, oh, it's too much to bureaucracy,
and now we're appointing four more managers.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I don't know, Ryan, We've already got regional directors in place,
they've been there for a while. These new regional directors
who will replace them have got a different set of
responsibilities and delegations, including I think bringing oversight of commissioning
or parts of the funded health sector back under their oversight.

(00:57):
It's I don't know. For our members, you know, who
are working in hospitals at the front line, the biggest
challenge I think is workforce and staffing levels, and you
know their lack of colleagues and so there's been a
lot of rhetoric from the government and from the new
Commissioner lest A Levy that there is enough money, there

(01:19):
won't be any more money, and that they can make
do with what they've got, And that does not feel
great from where we're sitting in terms of whether there
are enough doctors out there to get the work done
safely in an untimely manner.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
You're you're representing senior salary doctors and dentists and things
like that. Have you noticed have your members noticed are
changed in frontline staff, because that was the theory we
would get rid of some back office and we would
feel it more in the front we would have more
people at the front. Do we.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
No. I've just been traveling around the country talking directly
with members because we're going back into collective bargaining in
a month or so to talk about their core terms
and conditions, and they are they're desperate for more colleagues. So,
you know, if less Levy and the new regional directors

(02:22):
can show us data about where all these doctors are
supposed to be, we would love to see it because
what we see as people who are very stressed, who
are working really hard, and who are really concerned about
their inability to give the level of care to people
who need it in a timely fashion. So things are

(02:43):
very difficult out there, and so we don't have oversight
as to the where the money exactly is going in
terms of these budget provisions. But from the information I
have seen, you know, a lot of it is about
paying people that what they're worth. You know, there's been
a little it's it almost feels like nurses are being
blamed for you know, we've we've recruited too many nurses

(03:04):
too quickly. But that is a really weird thing to say,
because there are still significant gaps out there. The fact
that Healthy Zealand has been successful recruiting nurses is a
good thing and we need to put other measures in
place about the success of their health system, not just budget.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Sarah Dalton, thank you very much for your time this morning.
Appreciate it. The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director,
Sarah Dalton. For more from News Talks b listen live
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