David Wills: Nurses Society National Director on Health NZ spending $60,000 on catering costs amid projected deficit

The Nurses Society is labelling Health NZ's $60,000 catering costs - a 'bad look' for the agency.

The agency paid for breakfast and lunch for 300 senior executives at a conference in March. 

Two days earlier, Health NZ told its Minister it would be imposing extra financial controls to rein in blown-out costs.

The Society's National Director, David Wills, says the amount spent on food seems off, on top of venue costs - given the agency's current finances.

"$109,000 on that venue and the conference - that's about the equivalent of hiring one nurse, to be honest."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Health New Zealand, Hey jesz, these guys just can't
cop a break for reasons to do with their own incompetence.
They are under fire again for spending sixty two thousand
dollars for catering a three day conference of three hundred
health leaders. The bill included cannapas for nine thousand bucks.
It was thirty odd dollars each per head. The food

(00:21):
bill was sixty two thousand dollars. That included two buffet breakfasts,
two morning teas, two lunches in the cannapase and on
top of that the venue higher costs of the cake
tin came in at another sixty thousand dollars. Now joining
us on this is David Wills, the National director of
the Nurses Society. Hi, David Clara, what do you make

(00:42):
of this?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think it's a bad look more than anything else,
particularly in current circumstances. I mean, they spent, according to
the figures that we've got from AORA, one hundred and
nine thousand dollars on that venue and the conference, that's
about the equivalent of hiring one nurse, to be honest,
But from a bout point of view, it's a bad

(01:06):
look in the current circumstances, And obviously I don't think
they'd do it now. It would be much better to
do a meeting like this online, like a lot of
other meetings that they've regularly had.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Why they do it even then, I mean the way
that you no disrespect for you to you, But the
way you've answered that question, it sounds like they know
they're in the struct now and they didn't know they
were in the stock. Then they knew full well that
they were in the financial stock, then they shouldn't have
done it.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Then. Yeah, it's a fair criticism that, well, they wouldn't
do it now because they're under extra pressure with the
need to get under their or their budgets supposedly overspent
by one point seven million at the moment, billion over
at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
But the only difference between now and then is that
we know this publicly, how much financial trouble are barren.
They already knew it when they were holding the conference.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Certainly at that stage it was becoming clear that there
were problems, mind you. I mean, we don't see the
problem as an overspend vite to fudder or generally it's
a question of underspending the sense that they hired more
staff than they have budget for and they delivered more
services than they've got budget for, and that they think

(02:26):
them in a very difficult situation, both with the government
and generally. So it wasn't a question that you know,
there was extravagant spending of this hype across the board,
but you don't want to give ammunition that you don't
want to make pr mistakes like this, and a conference

(02:47):
like this was it essential? Arguably not. Could they have
done it online? Three hundred leaders brought together for a
meeting over three days with the minister. Yeah, I think
it was ill advised.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
David. What was the point of the conference, Well.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I was supposedly bringing together the Hair three and key
force for business managers for who are now in full
time positions and roles. Given it's eighteen months down the
line at that stage from the restructure, so supposedly a
meeting to discuss a whole lot of plans going forward

(03:28):
here the Minister and such like. Arguably could have been
done online. They've done a lot of online meetings since
their establishment. We've been on the receiving end of some.
It's the sensible way to.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Go all right, David, I really appreciate your time. Mate
that David Wills, who is the national director of the
Nurs's Society. Look, I don't care about spending thirty bucks
ahead on cannapes, right, that's probably what I don't. I
don't know. I don't regularly. I don't know about you.
I don't regularly cater cannapes on mass at people. But
it's probably around about what you would expect to pay

(03:59):
I per head for Cannapase. My problem is why they're
having a conference at all. The conference this is apparently
what it was about connecting with our strategic context means
understanding the priorities from our authorizing environment. This includes the
Minister of Health and our board chair speaking to the
expectations of us as a system. I would have thought
it was pretty simple. What the expectations of us as

(04:20):
a system is do some hip operations, do some knee operations,
try not to kill people, hire some nurses. Don't blow
your budget? Like?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
How hard?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Why do people need to get together all the time
for just random weird meetings about stuff. It happens in
every workplace ever, a meeting about this? Why you know
what your job is? Just do your bloody job anyway.
I just I feel like maybe the solution to this
is just to go. You know what, conference is canceled,
No more public sector conferences. You want to have a conference,
have a teams meeting the end. Who would solve this problem?

(04:50):
You don't need cannapase for a teams meeting anyway, would
be a hard time if I was your finance minister.
As you can see, so I'm not for multiple reasons.
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