Ryan Bridge: To Health NZ's new commissioner - Good luck, I think you'll need it

The press conference yesterday for Health New Zealand - Boy, Oh boy, what a doozy.

So they've appointed Lester Levy as the commissioner, the CEO Margie Apa was there alongside him. She's been in the job two years, that's how long the organisation's been set up for.

They're overspending $130 million a month. We know that — that can be nothing more than mismanagement if you take Levy's word for it.

He says they don't need more money. They basically just don't know how to spend efficiently within the organisation as it stands.

So, that's mismanagement short and simple start to finish.

And the whole thing for me was a farce.

They said we need to push into the regions, that's where the decision making is made.

What? Isn't that what we said we didn't need?

We needed more centralisation, we needed a national service and now we're going out to the regions again.

Why did we spend all this money to set this organisation up? It's so frustrating to listen to.

They also said we're never going to achieve the proper transition from the DHBs to this new organisation in two years.

Are you serious?

Imagine a private business changing its operating model and two years in saying, oh, the change hasn't worked but it's still early days, it just wouldn't happen.

And then there was this levy who sits on a whole bunch of boards and knows what he's talking about, casually said that their spending controls and checks and balances are not up to scratch.

"Internal and management controls are much weaker than I would have expected. So we have spending problems all over the show".

What an absolute cluster.

I hate to be negative, I really do, I know it's early in the morning.

Just a simple we request from me, let's make sure that when we appoint boards and executives that they actually know what they're doing, they can read a spreadsheet.

Good luck Lester, I think you'll need it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The press conference yesterday for Health New Zealand. Boy oh boy,
what a doozy. So they've appointed Lester lev as the commissioner.
The CEO, Margie Arper was there alongside him. She's been
in the job two years. That's how long the organization's
been set up for. And they're over spending one hundred
and thirty million dollars a month. We know that that
can be nothing more than mismanagement. If you take Levy's

(00:22):
word for it, he says they don't need more money.
They basically just don't know how to spend efficiently within
the organization as it stands. So I mean that's mismanagement,
short and simple, start to finish. And the whole thing
for me was a farce. They said, we need to
push into the regions. That's where the decision making is made.
What isn't it that what we said we didn't need.

(00:44):
We needed more centralization, we needed a national service. And
now we're going out to the regions again, apparently hiring
four regional czars. Why did we spend all this money
to set this organization up? It's so frustrating to listen to.
They also said we never going to achieve the proper
transition from the DHBs to this new organization in two years?

(01:05):
Are you serious? Imagine a private business changing its operating
model and two years in saying, oh, the change hasn't worked,
but it's still early days. It just wouldn't happen. And
then there was this Levy who sits on a whole
bunch of boards and knows what he's talking about, casually
said that their spending controls and checks and balances are

(01:26):
not up to scratch.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Internal and management controls are much weaker than I would
have expected. So we have spending problems all over the show.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
What an absolute cluster. I hate to be negative, I
really do. I know it's early in the morning. I
hate to be negative, but I just lost all the
will to live yesterday. Just a simple we request from me.
Let's make sure that when we appoint boards and executives
that they actually know what they're doing. They can read
a spreadsheet. Good luck, Lester, I think you'll need it.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
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